Til Death Do We Part and After
by RhythmUnseen
Summary: RWBY AU RP between Pyrrha-of-the-Grimm and Snuckintobeacon. Currently transcribing from tumblr RP. Pyrrha Nikos has died... or has she. In an apocalyptic world decades after that fateful night's events she has been found again by none other than Jaune Arc. However the decades of time has changed them both. Pyrrha is a Grimm and Jaune has gone rogue. Will they survive together?
1. Chapter 1

3/26/18

Til Death Do We Part… and After

 _Originally this was a Tumblr RP between myself (snuckintobeacon) and my good griend Pyrrha-of-the-Grimm. It started out as a simple RP prompt, one of those things where you ask a question with a emoji or picture and it tells you the prompt. From that spawned this._

 _This is a long RP that we have kept up for years and it is still ongoing. People have asked that we transcribe our earlier arcs so that they can enjoy them and experience the ride that Pyrrha and I have been on. So to you, our dear followers and readers, we give you this. We hope you enjoy and will try to update this as much as possible._

 _*****_

Pyrrha's head was bowed down and she was dressed in bloody rags that covered fresh wounds. Her hands and feet were bound together in iron shackles. She had once been a proud warrior of Vale, holding much promise and a bright future before she had fallen to the powers of the Grimm. Her once adulated and praised combat prowess was turned against her people and… she had relished in it. However she was struck down once again on the field of battle and taken as a hostage. Her armored bones were forcefully removed from her body, the wounds left to fester for she had not sued what little power she had left to heal them.

Dressed in tattered cloth, she had been brought to the city square where newly enslaved people were sold. The auction before her ended and she was dragged out onto the stage, chained to the post front and center. Pyrrha drowned it all out, the voice that spoke of her qualities as though she was a piece of meat, the forceful removal of what little garments she had, and worst of all the bids. She only came to at the very end.

"Sold! To the blonde knight for 10,000 lien!" the auctioneer cried out.

The haggard knight that had just purchased Pyrrha wore a tattered cape over ragged armor that had been repaired dozens of times, rust creeping along its edges. His cloak's hood hung loose half of his head, revealing tired, bloodshot eyes and long, unkept blonde hair. His beard nearly stretched to his chest but a small grin could be glimpsed through its forest. He walked over with a severe limp in his right leg to collect his purchase from the dealer.

Pulling back his hood fully, he looked over the ragged thing that he had just purchased. It looked like someone that he had known, intimately. Seeing the unhealed wounds on her body he winced, remembering a time when they used to be untarnished… and human.

"Finally… I've found you," he said, keeping a level and even tone.

Pyrrha was thrown at Jaune's feet by the auctioneer and she struggled to look up at who was speaking. She was surprised to see such a haggard looking individual come to claim her, even more so when he spoke to her so casually.

"Do I know you?" she asked with malice in her voice.

"I wouldn't think so… not now…" Jaune replied, paying the auctioneer and taking his name and company under note so he could report them later.

Jaune took the leash attached to Pyrrha's collar and dragged her to her feet, hobbling briskly away from the auction. The crowds thinned out and Jaune began to walk more smoothly as Pyrrha matched his pace.

"There was once a time," Jaune spoke as he walked, "that you knew me but i doubt that you remember. You've done so much evil, committed so many crimes, done countless murders, I doubt if you could remember me. There was a time you called me your ally… and your friend."

Pyrrha just stared at him blankly as he chuckled. He sighed, years of weakness and exhaustion overcoming him.

"There was once a time you called me your team leader…"

In Pyrrha's mind, vague images flashed. There were three other individuals standing beside her, but only one seemed to match the rogue pulling her along. Resemble was a stretch, the blonde man looking only faintly like a person she barely remembered.

"I can recall you, barely. You've changed quite a bit," Pyrrha said aloofly.

At that, Jaune's hopes failed and he donned his emotionless mask once again only this time it was cracked by a deep rooted agony.

"Whatever. It doesn't matter. Come on," he grumbled, giving her leash a hard yank as he headed off to a hotel he was staying at.

Pyrrha stumbled and nearly lost her feet at the harsh jerking on her neck.

"Easy there, I'm till healing here. It's not exactly a walk in the park having your armor ripped from you skin," she muttered, keeping pace.

He ignored her quip, too consumed by the flashbacks of memories that he was reliving. Their walk took a while, going to the edge of town where a small run-down hotel and bar was. Stepping inside everyone stared at the two, mainly at the odd creature that the ragged knight had brought in. He went to the bar, not bothering to sit down, ordered and downed a shot before grabbing hold of a beer before heading upstairs. Jaune didn't bother to take off his armor or filthy cloak as he sat on his bed.

"Don't get comfy, we're not staying long," he muttered, taking a sip of his beer. "Here, let me take a look at your wounds."

Pyrrha just stood there, she really didn't have much of a choice, chained and leashed. The wounds on her body were everywhere her armor had once been through the skin had mostly begun to heal over thanks to her Grimm heritage.

"So where are we going oh team leader of mine," she jabbed.

Jaune pulled out an old medkit and doused some gauze with alcohol… after taking a swig of it himself.

Dragging it roughly over her wounds he scoffed, seeing her wince, "To an airship, that's all you need to know."

The wounds on Pyrrha had indeed festered and took some forceful scrubbing to grind away all the infected flesh.

"I'm going to take you home."

Pyrrha ground her teeth at the pain but made no sound. She knew this would keep her healthy in the end, but he didn't have to be so rough.

"And what'll I be doing? Am i just a prize, or maybe you'll have me warm you bed, or… Oh, you're going to try to make me 'normal' again, aren't you?" she sneered with her black eyes and pale grey skin.

Jaune cinched the last bandage tight to make her wince then threw the end of the leash at her lightly so that he no longer held onto it. It was a brash move considering she was a killer and he had just given up his hold on her. However he didn't care.

"All of the above, none of the above," he said aloofly, extracting a flash from underneath his cloak, "warming my bed would be a nice to start." That last part he said jokingly.

He sat back on his bed and moved to the corner where he could slouch against the wall, his chipped and cracked sword cradled between his legs.

"I don't fucking know yet what we'll do with you," he said, downing the rest of his flask in one gulp. "Try to run away though and I'll cut off your hand. Heard you hybrids can grow limbs back."

"Is that what we're called? Interesting," Pyrrha said as she cocked her head. "It's true, we can regrow our limbs, but I haven't eaten in a while, so I don't have the energy to do so. If I did, you think I'd still be cut up like this?"

Staring at her, Jaune tried to see a bit of the old Pyrrha but could barely see past the pale gray skin. He reached over and threw his knapsack at her which had a small ration of food inside.

"Eat. And yes, hybrids when we're not calling you beasts, fiends, demons, murderers or… traitors," Jaune replied.

Fumbling the shackles, Pyrrha caught the pack between her hands. She dug out the morsels and ravenously devoured them, having not eaten since that last battle.

"Now that's a bit unfair, don't you think? It's not like you call your pet cats murderers for eating mice," she replied with a full mouth.

"Let me guess, humans are the mice," he let his head roll back and bang into the wall. "And Nora is a generator because she can…" he stopped, accidentally saying more than he wanted. "What is unfair is the lives you took away and the pain you caused all of us."

"Well I do apologize for fighting to prevent our extermination," she bit back sarcastically, chewing into the last bits of the rations.

"Extermination? What the hell are you even talking about?!" he shouted, glancing out the window. "It was you who almost exterminated us!"

Pyrrha shrugged, sitting down on the floor of the room. "You're exaggerating just a bit, but I'm not going to bother trying to explain nuances to a soul, it's not like you'd actually care."

"No, I don't…" he lied.

He did care but what he cared about was Pyrrha. Jaune leaned into the corner of the wall and let his eyes shut. It took him a while but he slowly fell asleep, or what he knew as sleep. Jaune dropped in and out of unconsciousness, waking up periodically to scan the room or watch Pyrrha. When he was as close to sleep he could get, he would mumble and talk through nightmares.

Pyrrha took the opportunity to rest herself. She doubted the man who claimed to have known her would care for her sharing his bed, so she made herself comfortable on the floor, snagging a pillow from the bed. The carpeted floor here was certainly more comfortable than the cells she had recently been interned in. As she rested, Pyrrha tried reaching out to the Grimm hive mind, connect with Lady Salem and her brethren, but was met with nothing. Either they had been defeated, or she had been excommunicated by her mother, and she wasn't sure which was worse.

An hour before dawn, Jaune awoke with a start. Yelling wildly, he jumped onto Pyrrha with his sword drawn, pressing it to her neck until blood started to seep along its chipped edge. After a minute he regained his senses, standing and sheathing his sword.

"Sorry… old habits…" he breathed heavily as he heart rate slowed, "Get up, we're leaving soon."

Pyrrha woke with a start as the cold bite of metal cut into her neck, before suddenly pulling back.

"If you're going to kill me don't tease me like that. Just get it done with," she scowled.

She slowly got to her feet, rubbing the new wound. She was still too weak to heal it quickly, so she just held a hand there to staunch the bleeding.

"Look for the last time I'm not going to kill you. Although if you keep asking I might just out of annoyance," he heaved.

He tried to drink from his flask but forgot he drained it last night. Sighing heavily at the onset of sobriety, Jaune threw on his pack and then gave a spare cloak to Pyrrha.

"Let's go, I've got an airship waiting."

"Don't want to be seen dragging a slave around I see. Too good for that?" she mocked as she struggled to don the cap with chained hands.

The leash around her neck went taut and she got dragged into Jaune's face. He took the cloak and fastened it for Pyrrha.

"No i just… thought that you'd rather not have the entire town staring at you," he said softly.

"Not having chains on me might help," she stated sarcastically, but the emotions in his voice hit her. "Thank you."

Jaune offered up an attempt at a manly grunt which didn't sound manly at all.

"As for the chains," he began, leading the two of them outside as he held onto the leash, "they'll stay on until i think i can trust you."

Outside was purple darkness tinged by the orange rays of first sunlight. He limped quickly towards the edge of town where the airship was waiting.

"Worth a shot," Pyrrha mumbled, following behind the man as far as the chain would allow her. Just because she was a slave now didn't mean she had to be complacent.

The streets were silent and cold as they walked, Jaune's eyes darted every way, searching… They reached the last set of buildings and went through an alley to see a rusty, dilapidated airship waiting… surrounded by half a dozen Huntsmen and Huntresses.

"Remember when you asked what I was trying to do with you?" Jaune asked as their ambushers readied their weapons. "It's cause I was trying to protect you from these people."

"So what now then? Think you can take them?" Pyrrha said nervously. She had taken down scores of huntsmen but now she was weak, tired, and bound. She wouldn't be able to survive a confrontation like this.

Jaune drew his sword from under his cloak and readied what remained of his shield, putting his weight on his good leg.

"Maybe… maybe not…" he whispered to her.

"The traitor Jaune Arc and the hybrid!" one of the Huntsman said. "Surrender now and you won't be harmed… much. We promise to end your lives swiftly. There is no way you can escape us."

Jaune edged toward Pyrrha and whispered, "Will you help me?"

"Is that even a question, oh great leader. I think we both want to live," she whispered back.

"Good," he slashed at the chain holding her wrists together, snapping it in two before spinning of the nearest of fighters.

Intercepting their weapons with his shield, he swiped at their legs causing them to fall to the ground while the other four quickly closed on the him and his new ally. Pyrrha was glad now that she'd conserved her energy by not healing herself. Oh too naturally a sword and shield of bone grew from her forearms. With a swift motion, she cut the chains around her ankles and jumped into the fray, stabbing at one of the huntsmen who had his back exposed. In the midst of the fight, Jaune turned and almost swung at Pyrrha, his reactions getting the better of him. At the last moment he shoved her behind him with his shield hand, slashing the arm of another attack. Now they stood facing the remaining three ambushers, blood splattered all over Jaune.

"Got any tricks up those rags?" he joked, his bad leg aching in pain.

Pyrrha raised her shield to block an attack coming at Jaune from behind. The maneuver felt familiar as she swiped across the offending woman's torso.

"I'm tired, hungry, and lack a soul, we're lucky I can do this!" she shouted back, a bit less scared now.

"Ditto, minus the soul part," he shoved back an attacker from her side, swinging at air as his leg gave out.

He slouched into Pyrrha for a moment, waiting for the agony in his leg to pass.

"I just want to put out there, I am winning if we're counting," he chuckled, bashing the face of a Huntress, leaving only one left.

Pyrrha snapped the shield off her forearm and tossed it at the last huntsman, vaulting over Jaune's raised shield to stab the last survivor.

"Now we're even. That was too easy," she sighed as the last body dropped to the ground.

Pyrrha quickly fell to her knees and, to Jaune's horror, began digging into the nearest corpse with her claws and devouring the warm flesh. Blood coating her pale gray hands and dripped off her lips as she ate. It looked like an animal tearing away at its prey, yet Jaune saw a person eating another person.

"What are you-STOP," he shouted, dragging her off the body.

He slumped back against the side of the airship, his side suddenly in pain and soaking red.

"Shit… not fast enough," he muttered to himself. "Look fiend! They may have tried to kill us but they were still people… once our friends. We don't treat them like that!"

He tried to limp over but fell to his knees, feeling incredibly weak. The adrenaline was leaving his body and the pain of his leg and his new wound were sapping his strength.

"And i'm literally starving. I feel as bad as you look, which is saying something, and if we get ambushed again I'd like to survive," Pyrrha growled back.

She slipped away, going back to her meal. The other souls had already passed, she needed to eat while this one was still tethered to its body. They needed to be fresh to give her sustenance and to rebuild her strength.

Jaune wanted to stop her but couldn't gather the strength to stand, much less fight her too. He watched disgustingly as she fed.

"And I thought… that I was just beginning to see an old part of you… You still fight like her," he rummaged about to find the medkit in the airship's cabin. "Can't you just live on normal food?"

"Can't you just live on grass?" Pyrrha stood up, wiping the blood from her face.

With the renewed strength, Pyrrha closed her eyes and focussed. After a moment, her old wounds began to close and within second were fully healed.

"Much better. You see dear leader, I could eat normal food as you saw yesterday, but the soul's of sentient beings are much more filling." She stepped onto the airship and gave him what passed as a look of concern. "Are you going to be okay?"

Jaune shuddered at the thought of her eating more people. "Well if you don't help me stitch up my side I won't be," he said, hoping that she would help because he had done all that he could with alcohol and gauze. "You should grab some of their clothes while we're still here, those rags don't suit you. And hey… at least you now know that we're both wanted dead," he mused weakly.

"That makes me feel _so_ much better," she said sarcastically, moving to take a look at his injuries. "What did you do to piss them off?"

"Oh I don't know," he chuckled, "buy a highly wanted hybrid from an auction, go on rogue missions for years, utilize government funds for personal goals, steal, backstab, abandon them. OH did i mention the handful of Huntsmen and Huntresses that we attack and killed?"

Pyrrha shrugged, "That explains that then."

She didn't know how to go about treating Jaune's wounds being too used to healing herself instantly. Instead of using alcohol and gauze, she laid her hand over his wound and suddenly grew bone around it.

"That's should do for now," she said as Jaune visibly recoiled from the new growth.

She stepped away to strip one of the female corpses of her clothes. Unfortunately both has gaping holes in their garments so she'd have to deal with a bloody hole either way. It was still better than the rags. Pyrrha sighed as she dressed. She'd much rather regrow her armor, but with as weak as she was she couldn't afford to do so.

"This isn't contagious is it?!" he shouted, standing up shakily. "Tha-," he froze, watching Pyrrha undress.

Although she was covered in blood and her skin was a deathly gray color, he had a flashback of another time, walking up to her and helping her with her clothes. Subconsciously he walked over and brought up a hand to caress her cheek but stopped, forcing himself back to reality.

"Sorry," he muttered.

Pyrrha had raised an eye questioningly as he approached and touch he cheek.

"It's flesh, nothing more, nothing less. I don't have that kind of power, the one needed to bring back the one you are searching for," she whispered.

Jaune said nothing but inside he wanted to scream, to cry, to almost give up. Instead he picked up his meager belongings and got into the pilot's seat. Priming the engine he turned the start key and with a plume of smoke… the engine sputtered… and nothing happened.

"Well shit. Did you hit the airship when we were fighting?! Nevermind. Okay… now what?" he said aloud.

"If those six were hanging outside the ship, don't you think they might've taken precautions to prevent our escape?" she suggested, standing behind him with arms crossed over the bloody torn shirt she wore.

A loud clunk sounded through the cabin as Jaune let his head thunk against the headrest.

"Why doesn't anything ever work out for me," he bemoaned, picking himself out of the airship. "Come on, we're not going anywhere in this and I doubt you could fix it. Might as well see if these dead Huntsmen have an airship we can steal. Maybe more souls for you to eat," he shuddered.

Pyrrha grinned when he said that. "Quite the 180 you've made there. After you, 'master,'" she said the last word sarcastically.

"Want me to get the chains and leash back out? Feeling kinky?" he shot back, chuckling and for the first time in years, actually feeling a small ounce of joy. "I'll still cut off a limb just to check the theory."

"Oh master, but we're in public," she said sultrily, laughing as well

What had gotten into her? This… this wasn't normal. The only time she laughed was when she had torture others.

"And the shackles are kinda busted," she held up her wrists to show the broken chains

Jaune felt disgusted and yet had this tingling sensation run across his skin.

"I don't think that would bother you," he sighed, now using his sword as a clutch, "Oh and that."

Reaching into his pocket he threw the key for her shackles at her.

"Obliged," Pyrrha said, hastily undoing all the shackles. "Much better. Come on now, you need to move faster," she hooked one of Jaune's arms around her neck. "Where to?"

Jaune squealed as his wound stretched underneath the armor plate and his knee had been worked overtime. Pyrrha's skin also felt clammy and cold against his skin.

"Well… they couldn't have landed far but they couldn't land in the town if they wanted to stay hidden. So my guess is the forest," he suggested, hobbling next to her.

"Think we can walk that far quick enough, or are we going to have to find another mode of transportation?"

"Uggghhh… Walking would be the safest choice but it would be quicker looking for something else," Jaune thought aloud.

Pyrrha honestly could easily have abandoned Jaune. Hell she could've eaten him and then made a break for it. But… the faint memories beyond her grasp of this ragged knight kept those notions at bay. Jaune however, saw the hunger in her eyes and immediately felt more vulnerable, clutching his sword tighter.

"Did you happen to see anything in town that we could steal?" he asked.

"Maybe, kind of hard when I was chained and dragged through by slavers. Do you even know how to drive?"

"Pyrrha… I flew an airship here. Yes i can fucking drive. Sheesh, lead the way," he said, holding onto her tight and pulling up the hood of his cloak.

Pyrrha picked up her previously disposed cloak, likewise pulling the hood up over her head. Leading Jaune out of the alley, she led them along the streets until they hit a crosswalk with stopped traffic.

"There, first car, middle lane. Only a driver. Think you can handle them?"

"Me? Me?!" he shrilled. "You're the damn criminal here!" he sighed. "Fine!"

Jaune exaggerated his limp as he trudged out into the road, stopping in front of the car. All Pyrrha saw from the shadowed alley was this flagrant waving of his sword, a violent shaking cloak, and the awkwardness of Jaune tossing out the driver into the street.

"Come on!" he shouted at Pyrrha as he began driving away.

Pyrrha jumped through the passenger window, landing in the seat after bursting through the glass.

"Gotta admit, I was surprised you did that as well as you did. Too bad you didn't take that meal to go," she said, looking back.

"We are NOT feeding you any more than we have to little puppy. And… being on my own… and on the run looking for you… yeah i picked up a thing or too. Hard life lessons 101," he said as he raided the compartments for more supplies.

"You're going through a lot for someone who barely remembers you, let alone is an enemy of your species," Pyrrha said curiously, keeping an eye out for anyone that might try to intercept them.

"Well, that's what we do," he said, finding a candy bar and immediately tearing off the wrapper with his teeth. "You stay by the people you love no matter wha-..." he paused, unnerved that he was talking so casually to 'an enemy of his species'. "We all had things we had to do, choices we had to make, things we had to sacrifice…" he said, taking the car on the highway out of town.

" _For someone you love?"_ Pyrrha cocked her head. "Oh my, you did buy me to warm you bed!" she said loudly.

Jaune scowled, trying to think of a retort, but noticed that she hadn't bothered to fasten her seat belt. He slammed the brake before letting go, his seat belt stopping him from flying forward. On the other hand, Pyrrha's forehead smashed into the front dash.

"Sorry, what was that? Something about 'wanting to be fed'?" he joked, snickering.

Pyrrha rubbed her head, feeling the black blood now dripping from her forehead and cursing the blonde under her breath.

"Is now the time to be fooling around with our ride while the souls are trying to kill us?!" she growled out.

"For that look on your face, absolutely," he grinned, finishing the rest of his candy bar. "So how about that huh? Still feeling like having me as your master and warming my bed?" he was laughing so hard now that the car was beginning to swerve.

"If I knew how to drive I'd throw you out of the car and drive myself," she shot back, unamused by his antics.

Jaune's laughter eventually subsided and he continued to drive, glancing over every so often at Pyrrha. The mood was silent as day turned into night and they drove deeper and deeper into the forest. He pulled over on the side of the road by a rock face, gently shaking Pyrrha awake.

"Hey, we've got to walk the rest of the way."

"You find the airship yet or what?" Pyrrha yawned, waking up and stretching her neck with a crack.

"Airship? I was finding a nice place to dump your body. KIDDING! KIDDING!" he shouted the moment he saw her face become dangerous. "And yes, they hid it farther out than I thought," he informed her, stepping out of the car with his belongings.

"Next question, and answer seriously or I swear I will skewer you. Where are we going?" she followed him out.

"Sheesh, Grimm have no sense of humor. I'm guessing that they landed out in a clearing past these cliffs. Only place hidden enough and wide enough. Now the real question, get lost in here at night when we can't see or camp out until morning?" he said, relying heavily on his sword as a cane.

"Unless you're confident we can't be tracked in the next six hours by that stolen car, I suggest we move at least a little bit before camping out," Pyrrha replied.

"Okay but you take the lead. I'm not much use in this kind of terrain right now. Can't Grimm see in the dark?" he asked, lifting his shirt to check on the bone bandage. Jaune would need some serious medical attention soon but he didn't tell that to Pyrrha.

"That's a misconception. We can't see in the dark, but we can see you," she hooked Jaune's arm over her neck again and they began hiking through the forest.

"What do you mean?" he asked, putting his weight on her shoulders.

"For Grimm… well, your souls glow, literally. It's sort of like a sixth sense, letting us see you when others normally would not, which is why we can 'see you' in the dark," she explained.

Jaune looked down at his chest, then back up, then back down, then back up again.

"Perverts. Well, I see a nice cave up ahead… to SLEEP in! Nothing dirty you're probably thinking of," he said.

Pyrrha gave him another curious look. _Had she really served under him?_

"Could you be any louder, I don't think the Beowolves heard you well enough… in Atlas!"

"What? Don't want your buddies to come help you with your next meal?" he sneered back at Pyrrha but remembered him screaming, hanging off the stinger of a deathstalker years ago.

"Don't tempt me," she said half jokingly, pulling him in. "We gonna set watch or what?"

"Hmmmm let me see. Get eaten in my sleep by you or get killed by potential Huntsmen. Ugh, why did I save you again?" he leaned against the sidewall, pale from the blood loss. "I'll… I'll take… the… first…" he slumped to his side, passing out from the drive.

Pyrrha sighed, apparently she wasn't sleeping tonight. She set the poor sod in his bedroll before taking a perch outside the cave, keeping an eye out for any approaching Grimm. Again she wondered why she hadn't fled yet? Was it an unconscious sense of loyalty? A desire to see what he wanted from her? Love?

She shook off that final notion, when Jaune had said that he was probably not in the right state of mind.

Despite hunger and fatigue, she managed to stay away until morning when Jaune awoke. He bolted up like usual, reaching for his sword until he came to his senses. His dreams had become less of the nightmares he was usually tormented with and more of old memories of Pyrrha. It made waking up even harder, seeing the Grimm here now.

Yet… he was thankful.

"Pyrrha, you should've woken me," he said, taking off his cloak and wrapping it around here since she looked cold in the morning chill.

"You looked like death and you needed the sleep. At least I can walk on my own," she replied, rising to her feet. "We should get moving now, 'master'."

He cringed, picking up his things but grabbed her by the shoulder before she left the cave.

"Look, I'm not your damn master. If that's what you want to think then go ahead but stop calling me that. If you want to leave and go join your damn Grimm friends go right ahead. But I… But I will keep following you," Jaune said quietly.

"You'd die," she said flatly. "You look most of the way there already. And I have a feeling I'm not welcome anymore…"

"Dying… Might be a nice change of pace," he muttered, half jokingly but half believing himself. Jaune had seen so much death that he had begun to question when it was his own time to go.

"Don't you have your fancy aura to heal you up?" she asked.

"I've been trying to save my energy like you. I spent 10,000 lien on saving your bony butt so I don't have any money for food and supplies to have the energy!" he shot back.

"Should've just stalked whoever bought me instead, stabbed them, and taken me. Would've saved you a lot of trouble," she said nonchalantly as they moved to leave the cave.

"Oh yes, because a trained Huntsman thinks like a criminal. Not like I was trying to stay discrete either," he said. "Come on, the clearing should be just ahead," he picked up the pace.

"Well you said you've essentially been one for years now, I would only assume…" she began but said no more when Jaune shot her a dirty look.

Pyrrha easily kept pace with the injured man as they walked. Such a fool, why would he let himself get hurt so easily? A couple of faded memories came back to her of the man, younger and seemingly just as foolish, taking hits for others without a moment's hesitation.

"Excuse me Pyrrha I am not a criminal. I prefer the term _rogue_ ," he mused about his self image. "Just cause I'm doing bad things doesn't mean I'm a criminal. Look! I see the airship!" he exclaimed, wanting to get away from the nagging guilt that Pyrrha was reminding him of.

"Is there a difference?" she asked, enjoying challenging a soul's contradictory view of morality.

"Yes there is. I am fighting for my own greater good," he thumped his chest but cringed, forgetting about his wound.

"And what would that be? You have your partner who barely remembers you and you're both on the run. What's the end game?" she prodded, wanting to have a bit more of an idea of what she was getting into.

"I don't… I don't know. I don't know anymore. I just… want to be with you, even if you're not her," Jaune whispered.

Jaune really didn't know. He wanted to scream at her, shout at her, hug her, so many things but he couldn't remember the reason he started this crusade. All he could remember for the longest time was that he needed to find her and that kept him alive, kept him going.

"That's just sad," she said flatly, pausing her steps for a moment to just stare at him.

"Well it's all I got."

"So what, once we take off we have no idea where we're going?"

"YOU THINK I'M AN IDIOT?!" he paused, staring back at her. "Don't answer that. I have a destination. It's a safe house. Supplies, food, beds, medical supplies, and weapons. Come on!" he sighed, stalking over to the ship that was now in view.

"As you say, 'masters'," she chuckled.

If she was following him to their end, at least she could get some kicks out of it. Not like she had much else to do now.

Jaune whacked her with the sheathe of his sword to get her attention.

"You've seen what I can do with a car, you sure you want to tempt me with an airship?" he teased, hopping into the dropship and quickly starting the engine.

He waited for Pyrrha to hop in and get secured. Jaune clipped in his harness too, doing a double check of all the systems and fuel before taking off.

"So what did you mean back there by you're not welcome by the Grimm?" Jaune said into the headset he wore.

When Pyrrha couldn't hear him, he slid another headset over her head and repeated the question.

"I'm cut off, disowned, excommunicated, etcetera. I can't feel the hive anymore. Salem must've thought I was done for," she mumbled that last bit, the full extent of her mother's betrayal just starting to sink in. All of a sudden her demeanor became quite sullen.

Jaune noticed what he thought was her first show of genuine emotion. Without thinking he reached out and squeezed her hand.

"You and me both Pyrrha," he said, thinking that the desperation may be the one thing they had in common.

The feeling of another's hand squeezing hers in such a way, not to harm but to comfort, was alien to her, yet no less pleasant. Unconsciously she returned the gesture in the confined cockpit of the Bullhead.

"Why am I so important to you Jaune? I can't have been your only friend. Why give it all up for a Grimm?" she looked at him.

Jaune made the Bullhead gain more altitude slowly, wind whipping through the cabin. He looked into the distance but rather than look upon the blue sky, he saw his past.

"You were my first friend. My first love. You taught me how to fight and gave me the power to protect my friends. And to me… You're not a Grimm," Jaune said quietly.

Pyrrha looked at him, really looked at him. For a moment she didn't see the bedraggled and injured man, wistful, and tired, but instead a boy, scared and yet determined and ready to walk into hell. The vision of Jaune was pulled in close, then promptly pushed back into a metal coffin, Jaune yelling and shouting as the coffin took off. At that point, she saw Jaune in the cockpit once again.

"You do know that even if I remember, even if her.. Uhm, soul returns, I won't be the Pyrrha you…" her voice trailed off.

Jaune's eyes emptied for a few moments as he stared out at the horizon.

"That's fine…" he whispered, although it ached his heart to think of it that way. "Like I said, I'm going to protect you until I die. I don't care where it takes me or how much it devours my soul. I'm staying," Jaune announced, rubbing his bad leg.

Pyrrha just didn't know how to respond to that. So she just moved back into the bay of the ship, hooking herself up in one of the seat harnesses in case he felt like knocking her around again.

Jaune didn't mind being alone in the pilot's seat. He enjoyed the silence, allowing him to think about the chaos that was his rescue mission. Then there was every single thing that Pyrrha brought up and had made him remember. It was another full day of travel before they reached their destination. The bullhead looked like it was approached the side of a mountain but Jaune was calm. He slowly brought the dropship into what looked like the mouth of a cave but inside turned out to be hanger of Atlas design.

"Pyrrha… Pyrrha…" he said softly, as he turned off the dropship's engines.

Throughout the ride, Pyrrha had fallen asleep. For once, she dreamed not of the other Grimm's thought but of something… different, something she remembered. She couldn't tell really, seeing Jaune, herself, and a boy in green and a girl in pink. There was laughter and adventures together, fighting other soul's and Grimm. Most importantly though, they were happy. She awoke with a start, hearing Jaune's voice.

Taking advantage of her stupor, Jaune patted her on the head.

"Good Grimm. Grimm nap good? Grimm want a treat?" he teased. "But seriously, we're at my house now, well, ship sort of. Can you help me to the med bay before I bleed out?"

She may have been dazed, but she wasn't stupid. She was this close to biting his hand off as a treat, but the shift to a more serious personality had her hold that thought for the time being.

"Your _ship?_ " she asked, confused yet again with the events that had transpired.

Pyrrha got out of her seat and took Jaune's arm over her shoulder, walking with him away from the Bullhead.

"Yep, my ship," he said, holding onto her tight

Sitting in the chair had made him sore and the bone bandage was at its limits holding back his blood.

"This is my safe house, my home," he explained as he walked through a hanger with various atlas dropships in states of disrepair. "After the battle at beacon, many of these Atlas airships crashed. This one did too, but survived well enough to become my new hideout. It's main power drive is done for but enough of its systems work," he said, directing her down some of the lit hallways.

"I'm surprised Atlas didn't come to try and salvage it," Pyrrha stated, looking around the mostly intact interior. "I'm sure there are some pretty fancy bits and bobs in here that they'd like no one else to have."

He held Pyrrha back at a working monitor on the bulkhead, keying up an external camera of the craft.

"That's why they didn't," he said, the view outside showing how what remained of the ship had melded into the mountainside, completely covered by trees.

The tips of the wings of the ship had broken and the nose of the ship was crumpled but the main body was intact. To the naked eye though, the ship looked like another piece of the mountain.

"Here, medical is just up ahead."

"Well wasn't this a lucky find for you then."

She hauled him into the room filled with machines and items she really had no idea about.

"So what now?"

"I got it from here," he pushed off of her onto a center table surrounded by half rings.

He slid himself onto it, laying back as he keyed something on a panel. Arms sprouted from each of the rings, scanning his body. They cut open his shirt and grabbed hold of the bone on his side, tearing it off fairly violently. Jaune blacked out for a moment, the machines still continued to work as they sutured his side back shut. He woke up int time to see them finish, grabbing a nearby injector to shoot some painkillers into his side.

"The great thing about Atlas technology… Robots. And they're entirely automated," he said through gritted teeth as he stumbled to his feet.

"What about your leg? It certainly didn't look like they even bothered with it. Was it an old wound that healed incorrectly?" she asked.

Rubbing his leg out of habit, he looked away from Pyrrha.

"Yes," he said softly, finding a shirt nearby and throwing it on. "It was from the first and only time I challenged Salem," was all he said as he walked out.

"Wait, what?" Pyrrha ran after him, shock and confusion adorning her face. "You challenged Lady Salem? How'd you find her in the first place? More importantly how'd you not die? Even more importantly, how did I not know this until now?" her mind was in overdrive now, completely messed up by those few words.

Jaune continued walking, using the hand rails to steady himself. On the walls were photos, newspaper clippings, half of them were clues to Pyrrha and the other half were of his old teammates and friends. THey were even quite a few of Pyrrha. He continued down to the mess hall where he collapsed into a chair.

"Why do you even want to know?" he perused a case of alcohol and random meals, the walls lined with cases and cases of supplies. Even more photos were here.

"Are you that dense? You fought the mother of Grimm, something few can claim to have done, and survived, which I can only think of one individual who has accomplished such. If that's not an impressive feat, i don't know what is," Pyrrha said, astonished.

She looked through the supplies for anything of the carnivorous variety, pulling out a bit of jerky to chew on while waiting for a response.

Jaune popped open a bottle and drank, which was a bad idea considering that it would only thin his blood more. He prepared noodles, a preserved chicken, and rice using a microwave while he listened to Pyrrha's childish excitement.

"Survived…" he scoffed, "that's a good way to put it. As to how I found her, what? You thought you would be the first one i tracked? You were dead according to the news so my first efforts were to locate Salem. Then you came back to life and so i split my attention but looking for you was like looking for her, wherever i found you i would find her too.

"I accidentally ran into her back when I was still with the Huntsmen. She was watching another large battle from a hilltop where I found her. Of course I challenged her to a duel where… she toyed with me… I didn't even have a chance… At the end, she either thought I was dead or didn't want to waste the effort on a boy like me…" Jaune chugged the rest of his bottle.

"Maybe… it was because she wanted to use me against you."


	2. Chapter 2

_Originally RP'd between Pyrrha-of-the-Grimm and snuckintobeacon. This is a transcription of our tumblr RP so apologies for the odd syntax and structure. As i transcribed this, i tried to make it as coherent as possible._

 _Thank you for the huge support! My cohort and I are extremely pleased and happy to see everyone enjoying our little AU! We are also cackling, remembering the early arcs that we concocted. Hehehehehehehehe._

"I can't imagine why she'd do that. I am," she stopped for a moment, "I was completely loyal to her. I didn't even know of you until the auction."

Pyrrha shook herself, taking a seat as she tore into the dried meat. It didn't do much for her, but it was something.

"Here try the chicken, it's better," he pushed over the plate as he focused on the noodles. "If I were her though, I'd want backup plans. I mean every villain has a backup plan right? Even for their closest allies? At least in the comics," he drank the last of his bottle.

She cocked her head to the side, not knowing what he meant by comics.

"She had contingencies for Cinder, yes. Trying to get all the Maiden powers, if she turned on her she'd be a great threat," she said, picking up the chicken now. It tasted better than the jerky at least.

"And she probably had one for you…" he mumbled, pushing away the empty plates as he stared longingly at the pictures on the walls.

He had collected them over the years and reprinted their memories of Beacon and after. Looking at them was calming.

'She wouldn't have, would she?' Pyrrha thought to herself. 'Cinder was a soul, so of course she'd have a contingency to get rid of her, but she was Grimm. She'd been 100% loyal to her mother; there was no reason to doubt that. Yet here she was now, cut off and working with another soul.'

"Oh, hang on," he swayed to his feet, "I've got something to give you."

"Oh," Pyrrha said.

"Follow me," Jaune said which was funny because he couldn't walk in a straight line.

He made it down the halls to where the officers' rooms were and pushed open a door. Inside was his room, disorganized but not messy. Every wall inside was plastered with pictures of his friends and Pyrrha.

He pulled out a large trunk from under his bed, setting it on the mattress. Jaune held his breath for a few moments when he opened its lid. His hands reached in where Pyrrha couldn't see and pulled out something, placing her old tiara in her hands.

Curiosity, confusion, then remembrance were all the emotions that crossed Pyrrha's face. All the pictures were supposedly of herself had her wearing this piece upon her crown. Again she had a flash of memory, however it was not with Jaune or his teammates, but with a two women in garb with hair similar to herself. The couple was passing a wrapped box down to her, the perspective a lot shorter in height within this memory. The box was opened and inside was the very same tiara. Suddenly she was hugging both women.

Again, this memory felt… happy.

"This is…" she trailed off as she came back to reality.

"I went back there after the battle. The tower was swarming and all weird from Cinder and Ruby but it looked like they blew your tiara down when they…" he paused, looking away.

"Everything in this trunk is yours. It was all yoru possessions from our old room, your scroll, notebooks, uniform, and your spare set of armor," he explained.

Pyrrha's reaction had been stupefying to Jaune. Seeing those emotions flash across her face had thrown him into a different state of mind. He felt… hope.

Pyrrha sidled up to the trunk, going through its contents. This was just, she couldn't describe it. Each item seemed to unlock more and more memories that felt ever so much more like her and not someone else.

Was this what she once had, what she had lost- no, what had been taken from her?

Looking at her tiara again, the memory that came changed completely. Cinder stood before her, knocking an arrow into her bow, aimed right at her. She released it, and she felt the impact; the pain, the fear, the loss that she must have felt then she felt again. The woman in red stepped toward her, placing her hand on her tiara, and suddenly the world started to drift away from her.

She gasped when she came to again. How long had she been lost in her head? Had it only been seconds, or maybe minutes, hours, possible even days? She couldn't tell as she tried to calm herself down from that final memory.

Jaune had noticed Pyrrha being to waver and held her in his arms as he watched her eyes dart about. She seemed to be in another world, mumbling so he just held her up until he saw… something familiar return to her eyes.

"Pyrrha… are you okay?" he said, his face hovering close.

There was a very long moment of silence as Pyrrha tried to find words to describe what she'd just experienced, not even taking notice to the fact that she was being held so close by Jaune.

"I… I died. I fought Cinder and… I died. Why was I so stupid to try and do that?" she whispered.

The hands he had around her tensed up and shook. This was not the reaction he was expecting and it shook him to his very core. Tears began to trickle out of his weary eyes as he looked down at her.

"You weren't stupid, you were brave. You did it to protect us, your friends, yoru family, the people you loved," he said finally, the mask of hardship melting from Jaune's face.

"And what did that gain you? A dead friend and a new enemy. She was… I was so foolish, thinking I could fight Cinder," she said, her grip tightening on the edge of the box.

The metal frame of the trunk itself began to give way and shudder.

"Even if I won, what about the Dragon, the Grimm in general? I wouldn't have made it out, and there would be so many fights left to be had!" Pyrrha shouted.

Jaune twirled her around and without warning pressed his lips to hers. For the first time his hands stopped quaking as he stood there for the few precious moments that the kiss lasted.

"That's what you gave me. You probably don't remember that or everything that your sacrifice allowed us to do. With out your… death," he said the word with such guilt and malice, "we could've never survived and saved the people and friends that we did."

Pyrrha was dumb struck when he kissed her. Again, it felt familiar, like it had happened before, but no visual accompanied the nostalgia, just a strange sense of relief and… sadness? When he pulled back, she focused solely on Jaune, hearing what he had to say. She shook her head when he finished, unable to fully accept his words.

"It certainly doesn't feel that way Jaune. Even with these memories returning in bits and pieces, I just can't see how it was for the best. And where are they, our 'friends'? They weren't there to help you get out of Vale," she said, eyeing him.

Jaune suddenly dropped his arms and stepped away. His head dropped so the blonde hair covered his features. He didn't want Pyrrha to see the rage on his face.

"At the battle… Where I fought Salem. They were there, down below on the fields fighting… When I woke up… The only bodies that hadn't disappeared were the Hunters and Huntresses… I didn't have time to search them all… I… I don't know where… If they…" he said quietly.

His rage got the better of him and he drew is sword and sliced at the wall, flailing wildly.

Pyrrha jumped back ready to fight, all too familiar with such an action, only to calm down when the more rational side of her took hold. Did he… Were they…? Names came to her then, and in a weak voice she repeated them.

"Ren? Nora?"

The sword froze mid swing and then dropped from his hand. He stared at the carvings he made into the wall and then turned away, glancing at a photo of Ren and Nora.

"Yes."

More came, and she couldn't help repeating them. "Yang, Blake, Weiss, Ruby?"

Her heart tightened as she said these names, and though she didn't notice it, the metal of the compartment began to creak as well.

Every name felt like a claw digging into Jaune's chest.

"Yes," he opened a cabinet and took out another bottle of alcohol. Silently he pointed to the pictures on the wall to show Pyrrha their faces.

Pyrrha looked at the photos, and her heart ached. They all looked so happy. Not a week ago she'd have reveled in ending such joy, soaking in the misery that followed, but no… now it hurt her so much. She fell to her knees, silent tears falling down her face as she curled in on herself. Metal wailed from the frames around them, surrounded in a faint black glow.

Jaune shared her pain, the not knowing if his friends were alive or dead, but the creaking of his home brought him back to his senses.

"Pyrrha… PYRRHA!" he shouted at the prone figure.

When shaking her didn't work, he held her up by her chest plate and slapped her as hard as he could.

The creaking stopped as her concentration was broken by Jaune's slap, and Pyrrha looked at him wide eyed.

"They're- They're gone. That's why you're alone, why you came after me," she said, wiping tears from her eyes. "I'm all you have left of them, aren't I?"

"I…" he stopped staring at her.

He never thought of it that way, the desperate perspective making him seem so weak and helpless.

"I… That's not true! I… I never stopped looking for you! I'm not… they're…." he began to stutter, releasing her from his grasp. "I don't need you! I didn't save you because of that!" he tried to rationalize his life's work.

"I didn't mean it like that, I just… I don't understand much right now. Not long ago I was leading Grimm, killing those like you, and now I'm hearing mourning those I may have well had a hand in killing. Jaune I… I'm sorry," she finished pitifully, in a voice that had been long lost to her.

He was expecting her usual quip, her usual Grimm sadism and sarcasm but it was another genuine emotion of Pyrrha. Jaune dropped the bottle and went to hug her, seeing for a bit the old Pyrrha that he so idolized in his broken mind.

"It's… not your fault. I… didn't mean what I said…" he mumbled.

Pyrrha took the hug, tentatively returning it.

"I want to understand, I want to remember who I was, so I can know who I am. Will you please help me Jaune?" she asked weakly.

As it stood, he was her only link to the past, and thus the one who would help shape her future.

He stared are her dumbstruck. This was complete turnaround from the Grimm Pyrrha that he had spent the last couple days with. Years had taught him to be wary, to look for the trap or the betrayal but… it was hard to do with Pyrrha.

"I'll do everything I can. But first," he picked up a full bottle and handed it to Pyrrha, "let's drink… let's drink away these horrible feelings."

She nodded, taking the offered bottle. She'd been adrift in life for only a few days after her capture, scared of what was to come and what would happen to her, but now a lifeline had been thrown to her and by dust she was going to pull herself in. Taking a sip she almost spit the bitter drink back out onto herself.

"ACK! What is this, poison?" she spat.

Alcohol burst from Jaune's lips as he laughed, obviously drunk.

"That, my Grimm friend, is called Fire Dust Whiskey. Stole that from a Schnee private train. It's a magic potion that makes everything burn!" he twirled about but stepped on his discarded sword, falling hard onto the floor but still cackling.

"An odd use for dust don't you-," she was cut off by the sight of Jaune falling to the ground laughing. She didn't try at all to stop the ensuing laughter. "You… you okay?" she asked between giggle fits.

Between fits he said, "I have a hole in my side… I'm drunk with bloodloss… I'm mentally unstable… and I have a Grimm hybrid in my lair… I'm perfectly fine! Ha, hahahaah."

His laughter soon degraded into silent sobs. "What the hell am I doing Pyrrha? What the hell are we going to do?"

That had not been the response she had expected, nor was the sudden mood shift on Jaune's part. On top of that, she had no idea how to answer Jaune's question. She had been coming along at first to escape, but now, with so much coming back to her, she didn't think it was possible for her to leave now.

"I think," and she knelt down to level with Jaune, "we need to rest, you especially. A lot has happened and we haven't processed it all properly. Rest will help."

Jaune was drunk … and probably delirious from blood loss but he agreed with Pyrrha.

"Here… let me show you to your room… that is if you're still not one to warm my bed or call me master," he jabbed, climbing up the side of his bed so he could get to his feet.

He grabbed the trunk full of her belongings and stumbled forward, unable to say on his feet any longer.

"Okay… well," he said, "any of the rooms next door are empty."

"I'll be sure to grab one next door, in case my 'Master' needs me for anything," she chuckled, still thinking it was quite funny. "For now though, I think he needs to get to bed so his body can recover."

Pyrrha took the chest of her belongings and stepped out of the room, "Goodnight Jaune."

For another glorious time that day, his mind brought him back to better memories of Pyrrha in her pajamas saying those same words. He smiled, holding back the tears from his eyes.

"Goodnight Pyrrha," he said softly.

Pyrrha turned and walked down the corridor until she hit an adjacent doorway. Opening it she found soldier's quarters, multiple beds lining up the side of the wall. Surprisingly they were made, and not a bit of dust on them. Jaune must've been taking care of this place. Settling in on the nearest bunk, she put down the locker, kicked off her ill-fitting shoes, and crawled into bed, hoping sleep would take her soon.

It did not, as thoughts and memories swirled in her head, and Pyrrha continued to try and make sense of them, put them together in a meaningful order, until she passed out. All this time, she had unconsciously refused to let go of her tiara.

Jaune was too drunk to pull himself into bed and too proud to call back Pyrrha. So he tore the blanket off his bed and rooled up in it on the floor. His sleep was likewise broken, whenever the alcohol would let him pass out, nightmares would shoot him awake. His last dream though was of that battle, when Pyrrha went up to fight Cinder. He was hugging Pyrrha, he closed his eyes as they kissed. But when they pulled away, Grimm Pyrrha stood there grinning with blood covering her face. She threw him into the locker cackling.

"PYRRHA!" he shouted as he woke up.

Pyrrha woke up with a start, and without any thought, jumped from her bed, sword and shield growing from her arms without hesitation as she made for Jaune's quarters.

Had the huntsmen followed their ship to the wreck, seeking their revenge on them as they slept? Or had Salem deemed her too much a liability and sent her forces to finish what the soul's failed to?

Bursting into his room, Pyrrha saw Jaune tangled up in his blanket on the floor screaming. She let out a brief sigh of relief as it seemed they weren't under attack, but then rushed to his side, kneeling beside him.

"Jaune, are you okay?" she asked, shaking him as her weapons receded back into her form.

Jaune was still in those first moments of consciousness where the line between reality and ream were fuzzy. So… seeing the Grimm-i-fied Pyrrha… he swung at her with a fist.

Pyrrha did not see the punch coming, and took it square to the jaw, almost knocking her from her knees.

'Damn that hurt," she thought, cupping it for a second before turning back to her freaked out partner.

Placing her hands on his shoulders, she shook him in an attempt to bring him back to reality.

"Jaune, calm down, it's me, Pyrrha."

Being shaken definitely woke him up but then he was caught in the reality that he had just punched a former Grimm leader. The shock on his face must have been one for the ages.

"Pyrrha…. Please don't eat me…" he murmured as he got this feet and crept towards the door.

Pyrrha was shocked when he said that, letting him slip from under her as she remembering what she was… what she looked like to him. She was Grimm.

"Jaune I… I wouldn't, not you."

"I… Oh…" Jaune muttered as he realized that he now had insulted her too. "It was a joke? Uhm… Just being alone… Uh… and the nightmares… I uh… I'm sorry."

It was true, all that time alone had given Jaune cabin fever.

She stood up to face him, and smiled sadly. She only just learned of all this and she felt like shit, she could only imagine how he was handling it.

"It's okay Jaune, I'm fine. Are you okay though? She asked as she slowly approached him, careful not to freak him out again.

He scratched his shaggy blonde hair. Jaune felt like he needed a shower… and that he needed to get some serious help for his alcohol addiction.

"I'm fine Pyrrha. Don't' worry about me, this is… normal. Call it the world's way of reminding me of my failures," he said as he walked out towards the showers.

"Normal or not, it sure doesn't seem healthy," she called out after him.

It really didn't. He looked like he was going to fall apart at any moment now and… well she didn't want that to happen. She didn't know what to do though, and was just left standing in his room.

Jaune chuckled, thinking that he was getting advice from a Grimm. He cringed, that was the same thinking that insulted Pyrrha. He damned himself for thinking like that as he stepped into the bathroom.

"You sure you don't want to shower Pyrrha?!" he shouted out the door as he left a trail of stripped garments.

Pyrrha gave herself a look down, and seeing she was caked in dirt, grime, and blood, only some of which was hers, she could probably use one.

"I hope you're not planning anything with this, 'Master'," she replied, following the trail of discarded clothes to where they lead.

When she stepped through the door, Jaune threw a bar of soap at her.

"Only if you're offering 'little pet'," he made sure to exaggerate the title to let her know he was joking.

Atlas military showers were bare bones to say the least. The whole room was full of stalls that had no door or curtain. Each stall had a shower head and simple controls to adjust the temperature of the water.

Stepping into the open showers, it took a moment for the broken ship to pump water. Jaune closed his eyes under the stream, letting the water trickle over his scar ridden body.

Pyrrha began to strip, tossing the borrowed clothes into a corner. She couldn't help but look up and down Jaune's backside, unconsciously licking her lips before turning on another of the shower heads on for herself.

"Maybe," she said under her breath as she relished in the warm water running down her body, coming away from her in shades of black and gray as it went down the drain.

Jaune screwed his head on tight and forward, intent on not falling to more carnal desires. Yet the pitter-patter of bare footsteps and then the sudden noise of the shower turning on gave him tantalizing images. Being the weak minded soul he is, he glanced over her shoulder and was put into awe by Pyrrha's bare curves. Even with her skin in shades of grey, it was a holy sight.

"Maybe," he whispered to himself, shooting his eyes away whenever Pyrrha glanced over.

Pyrrha scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, and dust did it feel heavenly, she couldn't help herself when a pleased moan escaped her lips. She didn't realize how dirty she had been until she'd gotten herself clean .Even then she couldn't force herself to move form under the stream of hot water. It just felt so good, plus she had a nice view behind her. It'd be a lie to say Jaune wasn't attractive, and from her memories of him so far it seemed she had thought so in the past.

But things were so confusing and messy right now, even his "maybe" reply left her unsure of things.

Hearing the moan did things to Jaune down below that he couldn't hide as much as he tried. He couldn't tell if it was the shower or something else that had elicited such a noise and it was driving him mad.

"P-P-PYRRHA!" he accidentally shouted.

Shit!

What the hell was he thinking?!

"Doyouneedhelpwashingyourback?!"

Years… he had years and that was the best pickup line he could come up with…

Pyrrha was pulled from her reverie when Jaune shouted, and almost turned ready for a fight, but stopped when he rushed out his question, suppressing a chuckle that threatened to escape. Reaching to her back, she came to the conclusion she couldn't adequately wash it and that she did need help.

"It would be appreciated Jaune, thank you," she said, looking over her shoulder with a smile.

"Grimm damnit, idiot Jaune, idiot," he whispered to himself but was star struck when she smiled at him.

The moment he turned to walk over his eyes trailed down her spine and to her behind… and then promptly shot straight back up again. He was trying his best as he gingerly placed his hands on her skin.

"Wow… Soft…" he murmured, moving her blood red hair over her shoulder.

Externally, Pyrrha sighed pleasantly at this. Internally she hadn't thought this through and was maybe freaking out a little bit… or a lot actually. Parts of her wanted to jump him now, other parts were screaming for her run, and still some had just shut down completely. All she could do was stand still, head slightly bowed, and try to make small talk.

"Surprising, yes?"

"I just…" he said completely entranced, "it's so smooth but cold… I never thought it'd be like this under your armor…"

Purposely or not he traced his finger down her spine. That made his eyes look down again which brought him back to reality, grabbing the bar of soap and continuing to scrub her back.

What was he thinking, what was he thinking?! His mind was working at a thousand miles an hour.

"I still don't understand either, but I guess I'm just that different, unique if you want to spin it that way," she replied, shivering as she felt his touch travel along her spine before returning to scrubbing. "This wasn't an excuse to play with me, was it 'Master'?" she said playfully, exuding confidence that surely wasn't really there.

The master nickname made his mind jump to ideas that were wildly inappropriate. Jaune scowled, poking her in the side and glad she couldn't see how red his face was.

"N-no… That was definitely not! I mean it's not that you're not attractive… I mean if we did I'd definitely… But that would totally be… Uhm… I'm not your master damnit!" he said weakly.

Pyrrha couldn't help herself, even after getting jabbed in the side, this was quite entertaining.

"But you bought me at the slave auction, yes? Or was that a similarly roguish looking huntsmen that you happened to steal me from?" she tried her best at a sultry voice, but wasn't sure if it sounded right or not.

Jaune snapped a bit and twirled her around by her shoulder and pressed her back into the wall so he could stare into her eyes.

"No that was me and like I said a dozen times before I did that to save you. You're free okay! Or would you rather be in the service or some actual rogue who right now would fucking the daylight out or your…" he looked down and unlike all the times before, could no look away, "body…"

Pyrrha was taken aback by Jaune's sudden forcefulness, knocking all the false confidence she had right out of her right as she hit the wall. She looked him in the eyes as he spoke, and saw his gaze drift downward and his speech start to slow.

"Maybe both?" she said sheepishly, immediately mentally slapping herself for saying that. _Why did she say that, why?_

Pyrrha's words drifted through Jaune like a pack of beowulves in the mist. He saw now that she was as nervous as he. It was strange, seeing a timid girl in such a powerful body. Allured, he locked eyes with her, slowly, ever so slowly… leaning… and leaning… until after ages his lips gently touched hers. His body seemingly pressed up against her as his eyes fluttered shut. That was then the last image from his dream shot though his mind, seeing the bloodied Grimm Pyrrha cackling as she shoved him into the locker. Instantly he pushed off of her, backing into the side wall, holding both hands to his head.

"I… I… I'm sorry… I shouldn't have…" he said, turning away and grabbing a towel before heading towards the door.

There was a moment of bliss for Pyrrha. Yes she had been kissed before by Jaune, but they had been sudden encounters, with memories and realizations tagged on with them. Nothing like that disturbed this moment. She was as at peace as she could be. As he eyes closed though, she felt Jaune break away, stumbling all the way back to the other side of the room. Before she knew it he had taken his towel and run out of the bathroom.

Pyrrha cursed under her breath; she let desire and want take control for no a minute, and she probably just messed everything up here. After a minute of just standing under the shower, she turned off both nozzles and grabbed a towel for herself, heading back to her own room. She noticed the trail of clothes Jaune had left previously was still there, dripping onto the articles as she passed them, though she said nothing as she entered and closed the door to her room.

There was a puddle underneath Jaune as he sat in the corner of his room, towel drapped over his shoulders.

"Damn it," he whispered, resting his head on his knees. "DAMN IT!" he screamed, thumping the nearest wall with his fists.

"What in dust's name is wrong with me?"

Everything felt right and then everything went wrong. Inside his chest felt like a battlefield of shattered glass. Finding some clean clothes he pulled them on and went over to Pyrrha's room. His hand hovered over the door, inches away from knocking but what would he say?

Pyrrha was back at the locker, staring at her old possessions, more specifically her old combat outfit. There were other sets of clothes in the chest, hell she was sure there were plenty of Atlas Military Uniforms in this room, but this was her trademark outfit, judging by all those photos Jaune had.

The question in her mind though was whether or not she deserved to wear it. She wasn't the Pyrrha that Jaune had known, not the one anyone had known before her death. She was now marred in so much bloodshed and destruction, that's not who the person who wore this was. Could she be that person again?

Before she had the chance to decide, she saw the light of a soul standing outside her door. Knowing there was only one on this ship, she called out to him, standing back at her full height.

"Come in Jaune."

Jaune jumped and debated just running away but he wanted to at least try.

He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. He opened his mouth then froze again, Pyrrha not dressed and standing right in front of him. Mind racing again, he focused on what he wanted to say.

"Pyrrha. I didn't mean to run out like that but… it wasn't you. I just had a flashback to a nightmare. I hope… Look, my mind is really messed up. I just need to let you know that," he said.

Seeing her naked resparked his desires but he wasn't going to do anything that she didn't want.

Pyrrha took no noticed to the fact that her towel had slipped from her as she had stood up.

"We're both really messed up Jaune, for different reasons yes, but neither of us is okay, but that's okay, okay?"

Dust she sounded ridiculous now.

"What I mean is I understand, and I'm not going to hold any of that against you. You're… You're my partner Jaune, we have to have each other's back," she said with tears in her eyes.

"I didn't think Grimm could cry," he said softly as a joke.

He noticed how her old clothes were lying about and instantly assumed that she was going to put them on.

"Here, I can help you with that if you want… or I can leave… or whatever," he tried to sound calm but seeing her body just made his heart race.

"Do you think they'll fit? It's been years, right?" she looked down at her outfit, then back at Jaune.

He didn't seem to oppose her wearing it again. Then again he did have his own demons to deal with, he probably wasn't thinking about that.

Turning around politely he tried not to stare too much, rubbing the back of his head.

"I mean unless you've let yourself go on souls I mean…" he said mindlessly like he always did, chiding himself. "You might as well try them on," he glanced over his shoulder.

Why did it still feel like he was in the shower with hot water blasting him?

"Okay," she said as she began slipping on her underwear and spandex shorts, which was simple enough. She looked back at Jaune and said, "You don't need to look away you know."

She grabbed her breastplate and began fiddling with it, trying to get it on right.

"But if I keep looking… I might do something stupid again… As much as I would love tooOOOOOOO… To help you put on your armor!" he shouted.

She cocked an eyebrow at Jaune, confused by his sudden shouting.

"Are you okay Jaune? Something land on your foot?" she now had the plate on, and was now fiddling the ties and straps that held it against her.

Seeing that she was now adequately covered he felt relieved… but only just.

"More like my head," he mumbled, "here let me."

Stepping over he helped with the straps, still remembering from all the times he'd helped her before.

"See, it's still a perfect fit," he said.

"Thank you Jaune."

She turned to give him a soft smile, then knelt down to work on reattaching the other bits. It felt weird yet familiar, like so many other things now; she was too used to growing her armor from within her, but she didn't have the energy to do so, and this… it connected her to her past. When she was done, she stood up again.

"Oh, one last piece I almost forgot," she said, stepping over to her bed.

She searched a bit for her tiara, which had slipped from her grasp as she slept. When she found it, she turned around and slipped it around her crown.

"How do I look?"

Taking a step back, he glanced her up and down. At first he wanted to blurt out 'grey' but caught himself before the word slipped from his mouth. In truth, she looked stunning, the armor fit her like a glove and brought back warm feelings within Jaune's heart.

"Ready to take on Salem, I would say," he said warmly. "Speaking of which… how about we go test it out?"

Pyrrha's eyes suddenly filled with fear.

"Wh-what? Why J-Jaune? No!"

Despite her mind still being a mess, everything agreed in that doing that was a very, very, bad idea.

"What? No! Whoa Pyrrha relax, relax! Not go fight Salem, I meant go make some money. I was saying we go take on some mercenary contracts since I'm broke!" he took a step forward and reached out a hand. "I didn't mean fighting her. I know that we wouldn't survive that!"

She didn't hear him as her breath got short and her legs went weak.

"Please no, no no nonono," she cried out, falling to her knees.

She saw the world fall away form her, then come back, as she stared into the ghastly visage of Salem. Her chest hurt, and she could feel the life slowly leaving her body, but not before Salem stood before her and plunged a clawed finger into her, followed by a burning pain filling her veins. Then with a blink she was gone, but she didn't realized it yet, breaking down into sobs.

"Please no," she cried out pitifully.


	3. Chapter 3

_Originally RP'd on tumblr between snuckintobeacon and Pyrrha-of-the-Grimm. Readers new and old, welcome. Again, pardon the odd structure and form as this is transcribed from a tumblr RP._

Jaune panicked, seeing Pyrrha collapse before he could catch her. For a moment, he thought he saw the bones move under her skin but shook his head. Scrambling for a nearby drawer, he pulled out an injector and pressed it to her neck. He hoped that the chemical cocktail would calm her nerves.

"Pyrrha, I don't know what's going on but I'm right here okay? I'm right here beside you," he whispered, kneeling next to her and taking her in his arms.

"Please, I don't," she gasped, "I don't think I could face her Jaune," she muttered as she clung to him as if her life depended on it. "Please don't make me go back Jaune!"

"Shhhh! Shhhhh…" he cooed into her ear, stroking her head.

He was shaking, confused and afraid of how the demons of her mind tormented her. Now he understood what it was like to watch and not be able to help.

"I won't… I won't ever Pyrrha. I'll never make you do anything you don't want to. We'll never face her. We'll hide here or… just run… we'll run and find somewhere no one can find us," he said.

She just sat there for a bit, hugging onto Jaune tightly as she calmed down, tears still flowing freely from her eyes.

"I didn't die," she said in almost a whisper, her voice cracking a bit from the sobs.

Confusion tore through Jaune. What the hell had she seen?

"No, you're very much alive and here," he said softly. "What happened?" he asked, still quite in the dark and afraid of what he had just witnessed.

Pyrrha's voice was small and quiet as she spoke. "I didn't die on the tower. I was- I don't know how to describe it, moved to where Salem was. I was dying, and then she… I didn't die Jaune, she changed me, made me forget!"

Her voice rose as she said the last bit. She was so frustrated, so angry with everything right now. How could she have forgotten her entire life up to that point, only to be forced to serve the one who did so?

Jaune's arms tensed around her to the point where they almost hurt. The revelation that she had just unleashed upon Jaune began like the tremors of an earthquake that shook apart his soul. If what she was saying was true… then everything wasn't for naught… his life's work wasn't in vain… and here in his arms was the actual Pyrrha.

"You didn't… die…" he said aloud to try and convince himself. So much failure had made him skeptical of hope. He had to test her, "Pyrrha what was on my Pajamas the first night we spent at Beacon?"

Pyrrha just shook her head.

"I don't remember Jaune. So much is still hidden from me, I only have a few of the pieces," she leaned back to look at him. "I do remember you wore footie pajamas though, and… Yang would tease you about it until you bought a different set," she said with a weak smile.

But that was enough for him as he hugged her tighter, kissing her on the forehead.

"I believe you Pyrrha, I believe you…" he said as tears began to fall from his cheeks and onto her head. "Welcome home…" he whispered as he smiled, laughing through the tears.

Pyrrha began to cry as well, this time with tears of joy. Things were still fucked royally for the two of them, but their relationship was on the mend.

"Home, huh?" she chuckled through the tears, "It's a bit bigger than Beacon."

Jaune helped her stand and wiped her tears, taking a step back and placing his hands on his hips.

"Look there wasn't a lot of options on the Beacon home market. But we've got stolen food, hot water, an armory that I can't get into, and warm beds," he announced proudly as an alarm sounded through the ship. "Aaaaaaaaaaand it may need renovations," he sighed, going to check the internal monitor.

Pyrrha nearly jumped out of her skin, still too used to alarms like that meaning she'd been found out and had to fight.

"This happens often?" she asked with a tinge of worry.

He sighed heavily, "Sadly yes. Stay here, unless you're mechanically inclined. It looks like one of the dust lines from the generators blew. I'll be back after I fix it or we blow up, either or."

Jaune was strangely nonchalant as he limped away, picking up tools from the hallways.

"You say that like you've blown up before," she said, not knowing if it was scary or impressive, being that he was still here. Still she ran after him, not particularly caring to stand around doing nothing at the moment.

"You might not remember but I was never the best at my studies at Beacon. Soooooo you'll have to say that I had to learn the hard way," he grumbled, opening a hatch on the ground and jumping in.

Inside it was loud, hot, and a maze and Jaune spent a good hour or two inside working. Pyrrha was about to follow, but the blast of hot air and the sound of insanely loud machinery kept her at bay.

"You know what you're doing now, yes?" she shouted down after him, worried when he had said he'd learn 'the hard way.'

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" he shouted back as he began to expertly fiddle with the machinery.

It was a few hours before he climbed back out of the hatch, shutting it with a grunt. His hands and face were completely covered in black, ruining the point of showering earlier that morning.

"Good news, we aren't dead. Bad news, we're still broke and need replacement parts," he announced. "And I'm hungry and too sober for this."

Pyrrha helped pull Jaune out of the hatch when he said that.

"Replacement parts? What's busted? Also you look like you need another shower now?" she said, looking him up and down.

"Ugh… yeah I'll get to that in a minute. Well there are two things that I need that I don't even know what they're called but I know they keep the power regulated so nothing, well… explodes from dust," he said in what could be called a disgrace to layman's terms. "What I did will hold for now but the long term we need replacements, for replacements we need money, and for money well, we need it… and I spent it all on you," he grinned.

"That you did, 'Master'," she giggled. "So then, what's our next course of action? You said something about mercenary work?"

Scowling, he gently swatted her head with a wrench.

"I'm pretty and am sure they have restraints in the brig I could find…" he threatened grinning. "Yeah so… Uhm… we sell our highly skilled selves and maybe make some lien. Uhm… Maybe you get a meal out of it? I don't know," he shrugged, smearing more of the black over his face.

"Couple of questions then. First, will you be able to keep at it with your busted leg?" she gestured at the obviously improperly healed bone and flesh of his leg. "I think maybe we should also see a doctor about that?"

"Been doing fine so far. And also, we don't have the money," he answered her, heading into the mess hall for some food.

He brushed off the topic of his injured leg, not wanting to get into it so much.

"It should be addressed after we get the parts though. Won't be able to make any money if you become crippled," she followed after him, easily keeping pace. "Second though, how do I go with you and not get recognized? I'm sure there's a bounty on my head, dead or alive."

Jaune missed a step and stumbled when she said that. He hadn't thought of that notion, staring at her in her old armor.

"Shit… Okay that is a problem. Uh… makeup? Or you could just stay here," he mused, stepping into the mess hall. "Hell I could probably make a fortune by turning ourselves in-…" he abruptly stopped, wide eyed and silent.

Slowly he turned to face Pyrrha and said cryptically, "I know what we're going to do…"

"Oh no Jaune, I know what you're thinking. A half crippled huntsman and a soul-starved Grimm-human thing turned over to probably well-armed authorities is a bad idea for us. How would we even claim the reward if we're both turn in?" she exclaimed.

Jaune grabbed his food to go and threw a package at Pyrrha as he quickly walked out.

"Come on!" he shouted at her as he went deeper into the bowels of the ship.

Weaving through derelict and powerless sections, he arrived at a heavily fortified and constructed door.

"Here is how! Inside of there is an Atlesian arsenal which includes explosives. I figure you're not going to let me turn myself in alone so here's what we'll do. They'll have to keep the reward money nearby so they can give it to mercs. We find out where and turn ourselves in there. Before that though, we plant a charge on an exterior wall. KABOOM! An exit, distraction, and our way to lien!"

"What?" he said, staring at the skeptical Pyrrha. "OKAY FINE! First we need to open up this armory somehow…"

Pyrrha just crossed her arms in front of her.

"That's not even the start of my concerns Jaune. I have an entire mental list of why this is a bad idea, staring with, and repeating, a half crippled huntsman and a soul-staving Grimm-human thing turned over to well-armed authorities is a bad idea!" she said once again.

Open mouthed, Jaune stared back at her as she destroyed his awesome plan.

Throwing his hands on his hips he said, "Okay, do you have a better idea? Okay, okay, okay, I can fix the soul-starved person part but I can't do much about the not-crippled-but-semi-functional huntsman. There's a band of mercenaries that roam around this area you can uhm… consumer…"

"Again, well-armed authorities. Then the moment we are revealed, unless we kill everyone there before a message goes out, there will be a message sent out and there will probably be a sweep of the area. How confident are you that this place won't be found out during such a search?" she asked, keeping her stoic disbelief in the plan.

"100 percent confident… okay 90 percent and a half. Her camouflage capabilities are still intact. And if we can get into the armory in front of us we'll be plenty well armed! And uhm… we can put a charge on their communications towers too," he said, really in love his plan and quite honestly… wanting to blow something up.

"You really want to blow stuff up, don't you?" Pyrrha sighed. "Let's see what we find behind the door, but I still have reservations about this."

She turned to look at the door, arms hanging at her side. "So what're you thinking?"

"Don't you want to blow something up?" he exclaimed in disbelief. "Okay door first, feed you next. Anyways so uhm… I figured that with your semblance… you could just… ya know, open it?"

He grinned wide as she could and braced to get punched in the face.

"I don't know I if I can? Do I even have my semblance anymore? I mean, you can cleary see what I am," she gestured to herself and the fact that she is a Grimm.

"You were doing fine earlier? Didn't you notice?" Jaune looked at her but then to the massive door.

He gave it one hard punch and then sighed, coming back to take Pyrrha's hand.

"Alright I submit, let's go think of something else. Don't try and force something you're not sure of," he told her, holding her hand and trying to head back the way they came.

"Wait, what do you mean I was doing fine before?" as far as she knew, she hadn't been able to use her semblance as long as she had been Grimm; same with her aura.

"Uh…" he paused, "you nearly destroyed my bedroom when you…" he stopped, realizing what he was about to blurt out. "Earlier this morning…"

Pyrrha looked at him, and tried to remember what had happened, but nothing of the sort came to her mind. However, looking down at herself, she saw her hands were glowing a bit. Did she… stepping towards the door, she placed her hands on its cold steel surface, closed her eyes and focused. Her body began to glow black, and soon so did the door. The sound of creaking metal began to echo throughout the passageway.

"Pyrrha what are you-," he began but the metallic creaks made him panic.

Going as fast as he could he got behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Pyrrha don't force yourself!" he shouted, panicked about the harm to she could do by overextending herself.

She ignored him. She felt this power, her power, coursing though her. It had been so long since she used it, it felt so unfamiliar, but she knew it. She forced it further, willing the metal to part until the partition grew wide in front of her. When the crack had widened to the point where they could walk through her semblance faded as she fell to her knees.

Jaune caught her before she hit the ground, the entire time cursing himself. He was a fool, an utter fool. The moment he got one of his friends back he used them, ignoring their restraints. Guilt chained him back as he checked on Pyrrha.

She was very tired, panting hard from the exerted effort on the door.

"Heh, looks like… I still got it," he smile was exhausting but she was proud at what she'd done.

Jaune didn't care about her smile, he cared about her health… And that brought him to a dark place. He went inside and grab a non-lethal rifle, slinging it on his back before silently taking Pyrrha in his arms. He carried her back to her room and set her on the bed to rest.

"Don't leave," his voice soft but his eyes raging. "I'll be back."

Going next door he donned his armor and sword. Pyrrha tried to resist, to get up and say she was fine, but she was exhausted. She could barely put up any resistance as Jaune put her in bed.

"Jaune, where are you going?" she called out to him, concerned by the look in his eyes as he left her.

He didn't respond, only giving her a weak smile as he stepped outside the room. He left the ship and began hiking towards the mercenaries.

Hours later Jaune returned, dirty, sweaty, but mostly unharmed. What was astonishing was the three prisoners he had with him, one carried in a litter held by the other two. He hered them into Pyrrha's room with his new rifle.

"Here Pyrrha," he said, exhausted and guilty, "take your pick. I had to kill the rest, these are the only ones left."

Pyrrha was dumbfounded by Jaune's actions. How did he do this? How many did he take on? And to get out unscathed like that, she hadn't given him proper credit. She swung out from the bed, feeling better after the short rest.

"This… this will work," she said, looking at the dead men walking. "You might want to leave," she said to Jaune, "I don't think you want to observe what's to come."

"You're weak and I don't want them to overpower you. I'll see this through to the end," he said, void of emotion.

With one hand he held his unsheathed sword, the other hands held onto the rifle.

Pyrrha shrugged, getting up from the bed and looking at the three morsels.

"Thank you Jaune," she said, a hint of Grimm-esque vibration in her voice.

A sword of bone grew from her right arm rapidly, stabbing into the gut of one of the standing men. Pyrrha wrenched the weapon out for good measure.

"Lucky you, you don't have to watch me eat your friends," she said with the same Grimm darkness in her voice as she pulled the man to the ground.

Jaune watched stoically as Pyrrha proceeded. The other standing merc screamed, trying to run past Jaune.

Mercilessly, the jagged edge of Jaune's sword swiped across the merc's chest. The dying man collapsed, gurling blood.

"Not to rush but you might want to hurry, this one will expire soon…" Jaune said with blank eyes.

That was a shame. Pyrrha reached a hand into her victim's chest and through the wound in his gut, tearing out his heart. She then smashed his head open to work on his brain. Those were the most important organs when it came to eating a soul. They were where most of the essence resided.

Seeing as the other formerly standing merc wasn't long for this world, she grabbed him and repeated the process. She managed to get a bit more off of him, and felt very much invigorated than earlier. Still, they weren't as filling as huntsmen for sure. Lastly, she turned to the poor bastard on the litter.

Throughout the whole order, Jaune didn't gag or flinch, however he did become visibly pale. This was gruesome even by his standards. They should've done this in one of the spare storerooms too. The mess would be hell to clean up. He watched as Pyrrha finished, blood everywhere.

"Good? Room for dessert?" he joked dryly.

She gave him no mind as she tore apart the injure man, helpless to her action as she ripped into him. Surprisingly though, he lasted the longest, leaving Pyrrha quite satisfied. Standinb back up to her full height, she wiped some blood from her mouth and sighed deeply. For the first time she felt truly sated.

Stepping over the pieces of the corpses, Jaune grabbed a towel and began wiping the grime off her face and chest.

"Well, that's one problem solved," he said, weary from the show of carnage.

She smiled at him, blood and flesh still in her teeth.

"Thank you Jaune, I am feeling much stronger now. And I apologize for doubting you earlier, I just," her voice became somber, "I don't want something bad to happen to you, especially if it's avoidable."

Picking the hairs that clung to her face, Jaune tucked the ribbons behind her ear.

"It's fine. I may be slow but I'm not helpless anymore. So… I want you to stay here. I'll go by myself and get the money," he said.

Pyrrha's brows furrowed at Jaune's proposition.

"I think you need to rest first Jaune. You look exhausted, and it has to have been at least half a day since you've slept. We can plan this out more later," she said, making a move toward him.

"Huh, oh, okay," Jaune mumbled, his eyes glazing over.

The shock from his raid and Pyrrha's feeding were finally settling in. His eyes lingered on the unfinished body parts, not really hearing her words. Jaune's body and mind were definitely feeling what Pyrrha was describing.

She tugged on Jaune's arm and began pulling him back to his room.

"You okay there Jaune?" she asked, seeing the glazed look in his eyes, concerned that Jaune had done too much too fast.

Jaune let himself be led by Pyrrha, phasing in and out of reality.

"Oh, Pyrrha you have blood all over you," he mumbled.

The blood brought back memories, faces, all those that he had killed before.

"I killed them didn't I?"

Pyrrha stopped to look at him.

"You did," she said plainly.

Again the disparate parts were pushing her to different things. _He's a monster, not your partner, Jaune could never do that! You're a monster, forcing him to do that! It's the way things are, just accept it. He cares about you, that's why he's doing this, he wouldn't for any other reason._

"Oh, okay," he said again, "haha, I did it again… Oh well."

The strange thing was that despite his smile, he had begun crying. He sat in a chair in his room, pulling out more alcohol from a mini fridge.

"Jaune… why are you crying?" Pyrrha said, sitting next to him, ignoring the blood that was soaking into his sheets.

He didn't mind the blood because he was seeing it everywhere. If anyone saw the volume of his alcohol intake, they'd wonder if he was ever sober.

"I never got used to killing people, Grimm sure, but people… I know I had to, you know to survive, but I never thought as a Huntsman," he paused, chugging on the bottle of fire whiskey. "I see their faces everytime, the ones I killed. The ones I didn't save… them most of all… Do you remember all those you killed Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha thought for a minute, then shook her head.

"I guess the way you see the Grimm is the same Grimm see souls. You don't really remember one unless they really stand out. But that was before I started remembering. Now," and she looked in the direction of her room, "now I'm not sure. I hope I don't." She sighed, it seemed misery was quite common for them now.

He leaned over and rest his head on her shoulder, blood smearing over both of them. They were both so stitched up and torn inside that he wondered how'd they both survive. At least though, they had each other.

"I've killed 87 people so far," he mumbled, letting the alcohol do its trick. "Wish I didn't have to anymore. But… but we… have to… to survive," he slurred drifting off. "Don't go… out… without…" slowly he slumped off, falling into her lap. Both of them now covered in dirt, grease, blood and regret.

Pyrrha just sat there, running her fingers through Jaune's hair as he rested in her lap.

 _87 people killed to survive,_ Pyrrha thought, then shook her head. He didn't have to kill them he chose to, because of her. She didn't feel bad about that though, she'd killed so many more. She'd actually had to kill to eat, otherwise she would wither away until someone killed her. She wished she could fall asleep now, join Jaune in dream land, but energy from those three she'd eaten was still thrumming through her veins. So instead she just sat there, watching her partner as he slept.

Tossing and turning, Jaune had the same dreams he had each night. Pyrrha's hand melded in his subconscious, causing him to see his mother doing the same when he was a child. Then it would twist to him lying on the ground after being defeated by Salem, watching as her armies ravaged the field of his comrades. Then back, always back to when he was shoved into the locker.

"Pyrrha… No… Don't go… Salem… Die… Kill… me," he would mumble.

"Shhhhh Jaune, shhhhhh. It's alright, you're alright," she tried to soothe him in his sleep.

She leaned down and placed a kiss on his forehead, hoping this would help alleviate the nightmare he was obviously dealing with.

Jaune calmed for a moment and returned to peaceful sleep for a while. When he awoke, he was still somewhat drunk but had regained his wits… or whatever his intelligence stemmed from.

"Ugh, my head… and that smell. You stink Pyrrha," was the first thigns he chose to say.

They both did honestly. Another shower would certainly be order.

"Glad to see you're okay too Jaune. Sleep okay?'

"You're thighs are bony," he joked, wiping the drool from his face.

"I wonder why," she replied dryly. "Come on, we both need to wash off now," and she pulled them both to their feet, dragging Jaune out and to the showers.


	4. Chapter 4

_Sorry for the long wait guys. Pyrrha and myself have been quite busy with work, life, and the like. As such we haven't been RP'ing as often as we want, nor have I had the time to transcribe. HOWEVER, here is the next iteration for you reading pleasure!_

 _This is a Tumblr RP between Pyrrha-of-the-Grimm and Snuckintobeacon. I have transcribed it from old archives so apologies for any weird structure and/or syntax._

Jaune let her drag him, his head aching something fierce.

"We need to make some money," he muttered.

"I know Jaune. I'm feeling better now and the armory should be open, so we have that," she said as she pulled him into the bathroom and began stripping off her armor.

Such a shame she got it messed up already, she was just getting used to it.

"You should probably get undressed now."

"Oh…" he hissed, "what you're not gonna service you buyer?" he said jokingly but taking a stance to escape if need be.

"And how would my 'Buyer' want to be served?" she cooed, removing her bracers and leg guards. 'Fake it until you make it Pyrrha,' she thought internally.

He approached her, taking off his armor and shirt and wrapping his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug.

Resting his head on her he said into her ear, "Your master commands you," he began undoing her breastplate behind her, "to never do something so foolish like that with the door ever again."

Pyrrha shivered as he undid the back of her chest plate.

'Looks like Jaune was getting into this now,' she thought.

"But it worked, didn't it?" she pouted, though he probably couldn't see her face at this angle.

While Pyrrha might've thought that Jaune was in the mood, Jaune was just being… Jaune. Apparently him being consoling was turning her on. Ignorant of her actual feelings, he hugged her tight and pecked her on the head with a kiss.

"If it works at the price of your health it isn't worth it," he told her.

Pyrrha felt at ease in his arms, leaning her back into his chest, though that didn't mean she was going to give in so easily.

"I was fine Jaune, really," she reached her arms up and over to wrap her hands around the back of his head, pulling him a bit closer.

Jaune finally started to get the idea and froze up, however he was trapped in her arms already. His own arms wrapped around her waist while he let his head be pulled closer to Pyrrha. Through his chest he could feel the thumping of his heart as it began to race against Pyrrha's smooth back.

"S-sure you were Pyrrha," he mumbled, feeling her hair ruffle against his beard and his hands slide up her waist and side.

'What am I doing? What am I doing? We were just showering… RIGHT! Just… showering…' he thought to himself frantically.

Pyrrha could feel Jaune's hands making trails up her sides, leaving goose flesh in their wake.

"Is-is there anything y-you want Master?" she stuttered out slight. 'Dust this felt nice.'

He was ruefully reminded of how cute her stuttering was, hands shaking as he held her hips. The 'master' thing pricked at him and yet made his skin tingle. It had been so long since he'd been intimate with anyone… like he had any experience at all.

"One," he kissed her neck, watching her squirm, "don't' call me master. We're equals Pyrrha, partners. We are least of all, master and servant."

The kiss to her neck sent more shivers up and down her spine. Dust that felt good. She simply nodded her ascent to Jaune, not entirely trusting her voice in that moment as she was wrapped up in his arms.

"And two," he turned her around while reaching past to turn on the shower head.

Although he might have been sounding cool, Jaune was a nervous wreck inside. Practically everything he was saying was pulled from romantic comics he had read. The water, he hoped as he stepped under it with her, would cool down his burning skin.

"Kiss me… please?'

By this point, it didn't matter that Pyrrha was still sorting her head out, that they were fugitives from the world, and that really everything else right now seemed like shit. Right now, standing here with her partner, the falling water seemed to wash away all those problems, and she nodded. Closing her eyes, she leaned in towards Jaune, tilting her head so her lips could meet his.

Everything felt… wet to be honest. The water soaked their still clothed bottom halves and drenched their lips and yet… amongst the beating of the water on his head, Jaune felt at peace. He felt his hands relax and follow the curves down her back as he lightly pressed her against the wall.

"Wow…" he breathed, pulling away. "Who know you could do more than bite," he joked.

"Yeah, who knew…" she said breathless.

Third time's the charm they say, and this, well she was certainly charmed now. And so she dipped in for another kiss, the floodgates of inhibition finally breaking down.

Again, lips found his in a surprise attack that put him off guard. He closed his eyes, tasting the bitter tang of the traces of blood and flesh mixed in with Pyrrha's sweet taste. Her sweet taste… OH GRIMM WHAT WAS HE THINKING?! Content to keep their lips interlocked, he let his hands roam, gliding over her back and then down her legs, resting on her rump so he could better pull her into him.

"Mmmmph," he mumbled.

Jaune's hands felt like fire as they trailed over her skin. They burned her but it burned so good. She couldn't resist moaning when he cupped her rear, pulling them closer together. Her own hands had found their way around his shoulders, sliding into his hair to push into a deeper kiss. Dust this felt right.

Mistaking her moan as one of pain, Jaune pulled away slightly, hovering his hands an inch above her curves as if there was a forcefield around his skin.

"Are you… are you okay?" he hissed out of breath. "I don't want to hurt you and if you don't want to I understand…" he said, feeling that he may have gone too far. His priority was always his teammates' wellbeing first, not his own carnal cravings.

Pyrrha was surprised with how he jumped apart from her, and honestly a bit disappointed as well, but with what he had said she only felt warmth in her heart.

'Such a gentleman,' she thought.

"I'm fine Jaune, really. This is all so… nice," she said for lack of better words, smiling at him at she rested her forehead against hers.

He felt his beard brush against her face. He would have to get rid of that or else she'd keep kissing a bush.

"I agree," Jaune whispered, speaking any louder felt like he was going to wake up from a dream. "I.. I really don't know what I'm doing," he chuckled, brushing his knuckles over her collar and the very, very, VERY top of her chest. He was still a dork with girls.

"I believe you were kissing me, my dear partner," she sighed as his hands continued to travel over her.

However a deep breath changed everything.

"… And that we were both still quite dirty," she said with a slightly pained smirk.

Geez, just the one sniff completely set her off, no wonder she had dragged them here.

Jaune stepped back, looking down at himself and then at Pyrrha's scowl. Inside was a voice telling him to jump forward but his mind tugged on its leash.

"Well the blood and gore are a great compliment to you skin and hair color," he shot back, grinning and then gagging as he got a whiff too. "Okay… hcckkk… okay you're right," he said.

Yet he let his demon get the better of himself for a moment, taking both of her hands in his and pressing them against the wall above her head.

"We'll finish this later," he kissed her.

"Of course," she smiled, then gave him a slight shove back. "Now find your own shower, you seriously stink," she said, and began removing the rest of her soaked garments.

Jaune stumbled back, his leg giving him trouble.

"Fine, fine!" he retreated around the corner to a further shower, peeling his trousers off.

When Jaune was finally around the corner, Pyrrha quickly leaned against the wall as her knees almost gave out beneath her. She couldn't believe that just happened. It really happened. Oh dust, she needed to take a minute to recover after that.

Jaune, however, was cursing himself for being so overconfident. He was honestly thinking that Pyrrha must've thought he was a fool. After a moment under the shower, he walked out, and grabbed a set of razors from a nearby sink. Giving his reflection one last look, he began shaving off the forest on his face. After making sure his face was smooth, he went back into his shower for a last rinse before drying off.

"You okay?" he asked, peeking in on Pyrrha.

Having had time to recover, Pyrrha had returned her focus to the task at hand. All the blood and gore bits that had caked against her body from her meal slid off with soap and water. As she finished, she heard Jaune call to her.

"Just finishing up," she replied.

"Alright, just checking!" he called back.

Stopping in front of the mirror, Jaune had a hard look at the man he saw. Void of his shaggy bear, he saw a lot of his old self from his time at Beacon. Even with his longer hair, it felt like he was 10 years younger without his beard.

"I'll be in the mess hall whenever you finish!"

Unfortunately, Pyrrha found her current set of clothes to be less than pleasant, having been soaked in the shower. Instead, she ended up wearing one of her old Beacon uniforms. As she dressed, she noticed how the corpses had been left where she had feasted on them.

'Need to do something about them,' she made a mental note.

Dried and dressed, she met Jaune in the mess hall.

Jaune had pulled some clothes from his room before heading to the mess. He was also thinking about the dead bodies, the smell was less than pleasant in the hallway of their rooms. So he sat with a notebook, thinking of ways to dispose of their bodies while planning their big heist.

When Pyrrha walked in, her nearly fell out of his chair.

"P-P-Pyrrha, holy Grimm!'

"Jaune, are you okay?" she rushed over to him.

Whitle her armor fit just fine, her uniform was a bit more constricting. She had to leave a couple buttons open at the top and her skirt was half unzipped to allow her to walk decently.

Jaune couldn't help but staring at this very sultry looking Pyrrha in her old uniform. Half of him was taking in how tight it fit her form and the other half was living in memories of Beacon.

"Y-yeah Pyrrha. T-t-totally fine," he immediately looked away when he came to his senses.

He attempt to stroke his beard out of habit but forgot that he had shaved it all off.

"So uhm! I was working on our plan to… do… the… things…" he mumbled.

"You shaved," Pyrrha said, offhandedly, rubbing a hand along his now smooth face.

It felt right to her, looked right too.

Her hands made him want to jump out of his skin, run around naked on top of the airship, and scream at the top of his lungs. Instead of doing all that, he kissed her hand.

"I figured that… well couldn't have you kissing a bush and all. Feels weird honestly," he said, trying desperately not to stare down her cleavage.

She blushed a gray blush, "I think it looks nice, like the Jaune I remember… besides your long hair," she smiled down at him. She thought that maybe making things familiar would help her better remember things.

Frankly, Jaune stared in awe, seeing her lbush. It was strange on her pale skin, and yet, refreshing to know that she still could,

"Yeah, old me," he said, eyes going blank for a moment as he rubbed his bad leg. "Anyways, how about we make some money and fix my… well _our_ house?"

Pyrrha took a seat next to him, looking at the scroll he had been working on.

"So what are you thinking right now? Still think it's a good idea to try and steal the reward money?" she asked.

He spun around the scroll which turned out to have half scribbles and half stick figure plans next to in depth floor plan sketches.

"Of course! Okay, well we can do that if we have to. There are three options beside that though. One, government bounties. But they might notice us and being the government, the reward is horrible. Two, mercenary work, which is shifty but the pay is alright. Lasty, three, robbery," he finished.

"Since I doubt bounty stations have a lot of money on hand to prevent the kinds of robbery we're planning, I think that idea is out the window. So what're the pros and cons of each?" she asked.

"Well," again he tried to scratch the beard that wasn't there, "government bounties is a sure thing, but like you said, we're wanted. They're easy to do but easy for us to get caught and again, pay like dirt. Merc jobs are shady… the pay is shady… our employers are shady… and the task is likely, despicably… shady. Robbery is the best idea I think still, and we don't have to necessarily focus on bounty stations…"

Pyrrha, looked up for a moment, thinking to herself.

"You said something a couple days ago about the fire dust whiskey wyou were drinking, that you stole it from a train. Would that be a good idea?"

Pyrrha's old moral base from her time at Beacon screamed against all of this, but her Grimm-self would be willing to do whatever it took to survive. This was as happy a medium as she could get.

Jaune's eyes widened for a moment and then his face stretched into a sly grin.

"Do you mind stealing from a Schnee?"

The name felt as though I touched a personal string, but all she could really remember is that they were one of her biggest enemies with the Grimm with how much power they wielded.

"Not at all," she replied with an equally sly grin.

"Perfect… hehehehe, payback time," he mumbled to himself.

Getting up, he went over the cases of fire dust whiskey, took off labels, wrote down tracking numbers, and pulled out old manifests.

"Alright, first we need to figure out their train schedule and then figure out which trains are loaded with goodies. These are all outdates but we could us them to…" he stumbled about find another scroll, "hack into their tracking database. Then from there it's easy. Attack them in transit or at a station, take out everyone on board, run away rich."

"You make that sound easy. I'm sure they have some of the best defenses when it comes to this kind of stuff. Wait, revenge?" she suddenly stopped, wondering what he meant by that.

"Huh, revenge? I didn't say anything like that," he deflected the comment. "Anyways, it is that easy. The hard part is tracking down the train and the right goods, besides that, their trains are barely manned, mostly androids."

"I see."

Again, she was conflicted in her mind as she was glad she might not need to kill, but then would be deprived of sustenance. The lack of a way to navigate these opposing views might be the death of her.

"What kinds of goods might those be?" she glanced at the alcohol before looking back at him.

Seeing her glance at the alcohol, he poured them both a glass, pushing one across the table.

"Easiest of course would be lien transport or crystal dust, if we can find those. They'd have a little more security but we can handle it. Otherwise they've been…" he paused, trying to keep his tone level, "monopolizing standard goods and provisions that they sell to the masses."

"That doesn't sound right? Since when have they been branching out like that?" Pyrrha asked, furrowing her brow.

The Schnee Dust Company was ruthless with its competitors, but the SDC she remembered only dealt in dust and dust related products.

"That's what I thought. Don't know why, but they have been dealing in other goods ever since your old compatriots gained momentum and took out a lot of their competitors," Jaune said as he typed into the scroll. "Here, alright. Used some of the old codes from this ship. We've got train schedules but no manifests."

"A game of Mistrali Roulette, I see. Guess we'll just have to pick one and see what's there and hope it doesn't blow up in our faces," she sighed.

At least neither of them had firearms to accidentally cause that. She'd seen what happens when huntsmen shoot dust, it hardly ever went well.

"Well, if I'll be frank, cheating is better," he smiled, showing her another list. "Don't see it? Android assignments per train, three have significantly more than the other so, it's more like a game of Find the Queen," he grinned.

Pyrrha might've also forgotten that she just opened up the armory… which Jaune began to head to.

"That does make sense. What do you mean by the queen though?"

The only queen Pyrrha knew about was Cinder, when she and Salem spoke of how this was all like a chess game.

Jaune gagged as he stepped out into the hallway, walking quickly to escape the stench.

"Old magic trick, ya know? Three cards, one of them is the queen, magician switches them around but no matter how close you watch, the one you choose is never the Queen," he explained as he reached the armory.

Stepping inside he smiled, weapons lined every wall. Jaune took his choice of a rifle and some explosive charges.

"I see, only there's something to be won with any of them here," she commented, watching as Jaune shopped in the armory. "Are we going now?"

She had no idea what she'd do for a weapon. She could use her innate bone weapons, but she'd have to be careful.

"If you're up for it. I mean we are on a time crunch. Although we should clean your room…" he said, as he looked through what else the armory had.

"Of course I'm up for it, I was just thinking about my weapons," she said, impressed by the stock of weapons here in the armory. She wondered what happened to the crew when the ship went down.

"Oh, right. Wasn't able to find your weapons when I went back… But there's tons here and you have your… uh, Grimm ones. Take your time though. I'll just uh… go back and clean up your room," he said awkwardly.

"It's fine, I can do it Jaune. Just point me in the directions to dispose of it all," she said, recognizing how uncomfortable he was. She was willing to save him from this if she could.

"Alright, disposal room is just one floor down. Uh, you can find some empty bags or crates in any of the halls," he said, thankful he didn't have to deal with the mess. "Just uh, grab me if you need any help, I'm going back down to the hanger to ready the airship."

"Meet you there then," she said as she walked off.

Pyrrha found one of the crates Jaune mentioned and moved all the rotting bits she could into it. She then dragged the crate to where Jaune had mentioned. Making a mental note, she'd have to come back with a real cleaner after their mission.


	5. Chapter 5

_This is a transcribed Tumblr RP between snuckintobeacon and pyrrha-of-the-grimm so excuse the odd syntax. Sorry again for the long wait, transcribing takes a while when we both are pretty busy bees! Anyways, enjoy!_

 _Also as a forewarning... things get raunchy so if you're not into that then skip this chapter. Also, also, we RP'd this part a LONG WHILE AGO... we really sucked at raunchy scenes..._

Jaune went to the hanger with his armor and weapons, setting them off to the side. He figured that using an Atlas dropship was a better idea than using their stolen one. His mind kept flashing back to Pyrrha as he prepped, not able to ignore the warm tingles he'd always get thinking of her.

"Far from the dream we wanted," he sighed to himself. "Dust, don't let me lose her again…" he said to whatever higher being was listening.

Pyrrha decided she needed to change, seeing as her school uniform wasn't the most comfortable now. There were plenty of Atlesian armored uniform sets in 'her room' and the rooms adjacent. After trying on several sets, she found one that fit quite well. The sleeves would certainly go when they had to fight, but that shouldn't be an issue. She made her way back over to the wreck's hanger, helmet under her arms.

Jaune was finishing up prep when he saw the Atlesian uniform walking in. Out of pure instinct, he grabbed his sword but saw Pyrrha's face and relaxed.

"Don't scare me like that! You know how often I have to run away from Atlas soldiers?" he wailed, putting his sword away.

"I actually don't Jaune," she stated plainly. Had she known, she would have figured out something else to do with regards to clothing, but it was a bit late for that now.

"Ah… right, sorry. And actually, it'll help out a lot. The guards and androids might get confused by the uniform, just like this Atlas dropship that we'll be using. So milady," he grinned, acting like a butler, "if you'll step inside your chariot awaits!"

Pyrrha nodded. "It is quite nice, much better than I'm used to."

She smiled at Jaune, stepping aboard. This really was happening, they were going to rob a Schnee cargo train. Dust why had it come to this? She didn't know. The inner turmoil just started to show on her face.

Jaune took her hand before she stepped on board, noticing her duress. Giving her a kiss, he hugged her tight, whispering, "Don't do anything dangerous. Don't do anything you don't want to. I'll take care of everything."

This may be less than optimal circumstance, but she could handle herself just fine. She was a warrior for Dust sake, not a glass doll.

"We're partners Jaune, I'm going where you're going," she said sternly.

Nodding silently, Jaune entered the cockpit and took off. He flew for two hours at a high altitude, straight for the train hub where he could make their faint outlines in the distance. Gliding closer in, he began matching serial numbers until he found the three that matched their research.

"Alright, you're the lucky one! Which train?!" he shouted over the noise of the engines.

"Right's usually right, let's give it a go and hope for the best. How're we boarding this thing though?" she shouted back.

Getting on was going to be easy. If the fight on board wasn't the hardest part, it would be the getting away.

"I was thinking of landing on it!" he said as he swooped the dropship down, the train already leaving the station at full speed.

The landing was rough but he had the legs claw into the train car to hold the dropship in place.

"Well that was fun," he wobbled out from the cockpit.

Pyrrha stepped out and seeing Jaune wobble a bit, placed a steady hand on his shoulder.

"Let's go," she stated and placed the helment on her head.

Now if anyone looked at her, they wouldn't know she was Grimm, they'd just think she was a bit unhealthy with her skin tone.

Jaune wished he had the foresight to think of concealing his face but all he could do was pull his hood over his head. He jumped out, climbing down between the cars and placed a small explosive charge on one of the doors, blowing it just as he got to cover. The blast pried open the door and destroyed the droids immediately inside.

"Alright, car by car and we take out the droids along the way!"

"You'd think they'd make these a bit studier than that," Pyrrha commented as she curb stomped one that was still twitching. "Or maybe the cargo isn't that precious."

"Take a look on that side, I"ll take this one," he said, tearing open a box. "Food. And more food… Nothing on my side!" he kicked a dead droid out of the way.

"More food over here as well. Where is this train going?" Pyrrha called over to Jaune.

Why so many knights to protect a train full of food? Then again, this is only one car.

"Must be one of the front cars. No idea where this train is going. Manifest had it blacked out," he made his way to the next car, meeting a handful of droids inside.

Picking up the crumpled door of the previous car, Pyrrha charged straight at the phalanx of Knights. Their shots deflected of her impromptu shield. Once she reached them, she began crushing their bodies between the floor and the door.

"I hope you're right," she shouted as she decapitated a knight.

Jaune followed right behind her, using his rifle to shoot the ones she didn't crush.

"Just like old times!" he shouted over the thrum of battle.

He actually started laughing, enjoying the thrill of fighting alongside Pyrrha again.

"This car looks better," he said, seeing hardened cases.

"Don't remember you having a gun," she chuckled.

"Pyrrha, hellooooo, armory in my house you opened," he teased her.

Looking through the crates, she had to agree. There were a bunch of dust crystals and vials, but still a bunch of food.

"Seems you've got the right idea, better stuff's up front," she commented.

"Perfect. Grab the crystals, if we have time we can make another trip," he looked out the window and saw approaching airships in the distance, "on second thought… ONE LAST CAR AND WE LEAVE!"

Pyrrha looked up as she was grabbing the goods, seeing Jaune freaking out and shouting. She peaked out the window to see the airships approaching on the horizon.

"What's so important that they sent airships to stop us?!" she shouted.

Jaune wasn't listening as he charged into the next car, running into a hellfire of bullets. He raised his shield at the last moment to stop the rounds. He slid the barrel of his rifle out from his shield and fired until it was out of ammo. Taking a step forward, Jaune tried to charge his aggressor, but on his second step his bad leg gave away.

Rolling forward, Jaune made the best of his stumble, taking his sword and cutting robotic kneecaps. When he looked up again, he found him staring straight into the eyes of a Nevermore chained to the floor.

"THAT!" he shouted back at Pyrrha.

Pyrrha came to a sudden stop, grabbing Jaune and pulling him away from the Grimm.

"What the hell?!" she exclaimed, shocked and confused why this was here.

Looking into the car, she saw many other creatures of Grimm chained, or locked up in cages.

"Jaune, please tell me you know what this is about."

"No freaking idea! Uhm… Can you talk to them? I mean, talk to them while I go download the files from the train computer," he sidestepped quickly around the Grimm to the nearest console. "Nice… Grimmm… Pets…" he mumbled.

She shook her head.

"There are base commands I can give them, but they aren't sentient, they don't have thoughts like you or me," she explained, standing guard at Jaune's back.

It would be a lie to say that Jaune didn't love the idea of a pet Nevermore, but if Pyrrha said they couldn't control them, he believe her. He focused on the console and a moment later, a small data disk popped out.

"Got it, it's encrypted but I can look at it back home. See anything else valuable in here?"

"Grimm, Grimm, and more Grimm. You're going to have to tell me more about what's happened in the last decade Jaune, because this doesn't make any sense," she said.

It wasn't like the SDC was working with Cinder and Salem. If anything it was the Grimm faction's biggest target next to the kingdoms themselves. No dust meant no fuel which meant no tech. So why did they have a train full of Grimm?

"Look, I don't know either Pyrrha. The short version is that the world has gone to shit. Alright, let's head back, grab as many crates of crystals as we can and get out of here," he said, giving the Grimm a wide berth as he headed back.

He feared what rational conclusion his mind was taking him to from seeing the Grimm.

"Give me the long version when we get home."

She grabbed a couple of the larger dust crystals and tried stuffing a few vials in the pouches of her uniform, even then there was still so much being left behind. Jaune wasn't as strong as Pyrrha, so could only take one big crate in his arms.

"How'd they know we were here so quickly?"

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!" Jaune shouted, throwing the loot into the dropship.

As the two of them tried to board the dropship, guns from the distant airships began peppering their position.

"Get us out of here Jaune!" Pyrrha shouted, diving behind the bulkhead of the Bullhead. "Toss me something to shoot back at them with!"

Jaune threw his shield over her head and body, handing her his rifle at the same time.

"What did I say about not doing anything dangerous?!" he shouted, pushing her into the safety of the cabin.

"Won't matter if we get shot out of the sky!"  
Jaune felt his arm buckling under the gunshots to his shield.

"Hurry up! I'm going to take off!" he shouted, creeping into the pilot's seat.

This wasn't nearly the same as Milo, but a gun was a gun. Using what little cover the frame of the rear hatch provided, Pyrrha fired at the hovering Bullheads. The pair seemed unwilling to fire their chin guns, probably not to set off the dust, but the soldiers leaning out the sides seemed to have fewer qualms about that.

Jaune retracted the dropship's gear and it leapt into the sky as fast as it could. He could feel the impacts of rounds from the control stick as he fought it for control.

"We're going to have to lose them or destroy them before I can head back! Can't let them find my lair!"

"Why do you think I asked for the gun?" she shouted over the whipping sound of moving air.

The turbulence was messing with her aim but it was also messing with the enemy shooters. Unfortunately, now that they were away from the train, they had no issue using their chin guns.

"Shit, Jaune move!"

Hearing her shout, he yanked the control yolk hard to the left, diving the ship down. He heard the whizz of the rounds fly past.

"Okay! Fine!" he shouted as he came around, firing the chin gun at the first ship.

That ship stood for a few moment before falling to the ground in a smoking wreck.

"One left!"

Pyrrha stared down the barrel of her rifle, one hand on the bulkhead as she steadied her aim. Squeezing the trigger, she saw the glass of the other Bulkhead's glass shatter as she shot out the pilot.

But before they fell, one shot escaped.

Pyrrha felt the air escape her lungs as she was tossed backwards to the floor.

"Nice shot Pyrrha!" he shouted, pulling away and heading for home. "Pyrrha? Pyrrha?!" he yelled, looking over his shoulder.

"I'm… I'm okay Jaune, just got grazed a bit," she wheezed.

Looking down, she saw that it was a bit more than that. The armor was built to stand up against teeth, claws, and small caliber bullets. The chin gun rounds tore right through it into her midsection. Black blood seeped from the wounds into her hands as she tried to stem the flow.

"Just keep us going home, I'll be fine," she moaned.

Jaune saw the blood seep into the deck and start to run towards him. He at first felt the onset of rage but then became assaulted by unbearable guilt. The issue was that he couldn't stop flying to help Pyrrha.

"Don't lie Pyrrha… I'm going to find a place to land and… And I can fix you…" he said, worriedly.

"I'm fine Jaune, really," she said, pooling some of the energy she had.

The wounds began to knit themselves closed until not 30 seconds later, she was good as new.

"See, I'm fine," she moved her hands to show the sealed skin.

Jaune stole his eyes away from searching for a landing spot and studied her abdomen. As much as he hated to admit it, she looked perfectly fine.

"Okay, but I'm still stopping after we gain some distance," he said, cursing himself.

It was all his fault, it was always his fault.

"Just get us home Jaune, we're fine now," she stood, looking out the back to make sure there weren't any other pursuers.

All she saw was smoke in the distance. Satisfied, she pressed the button to close the back hatch, sliding into one of the side benches.

Jaune just grumbled as he turned the dropship yet again. He was silent the whole ride back, looking again and again back at Pyrrha. When they finally landed in the hanger of their home, he ran back to check on her wounds.

"Really Jaune, I'm fine. I had a good meal beforehand, so everything is okay," she smiled up at him, trying to assuage his worries.

She got hurt, but if this was their life now, it was going to happen eventually.

"What were you thinking?!" he shouted, overcome with a tumult of emotions ranging from worry to anger. "I said to stay out of danger! I don't want to lose you aga-," he cut himself off.

Pyrrha's frustration from earlier only built itself back up at Jaune's words.

"What would you have me do Jaune, sit back while we're shot out of the sky?" she tore off her helmet so she could look him dead on. "If this is what the life you brought me into is like, you can't blame me for taking risks. This whole situation is a giant risk, and for dust's sake. WE. ARE. PARTNERS!"

She hit his arm with her helmet to emphasize those last few words before tossing it aside.

He cringed in pain, Pyrrha hitting the one spot where he had gotten slashed. Looking away, he still held onto his childish anger.

"I… I just can't lose you again…" he said, barely above a whisper.

"So you'd prefer us going down in a fiery wreckage together? Is that it? Either we both live or we both die without any in betweens?"

She didn't think he wanted that, but she needed him to think about what he was doing.

"I…" he wanted to say that as long as Pyrrha lived, but he knew it would only incite her anger.

Yet that's what he truly felt.

"Okay Pyrrha. I understand," he murmured defeated.

Pyrrha's face softened, her anger abated. Whether Jaune really understood was yet to be seen but hopefully he'd try. Stepping closer, she pulled him into a hug.

"Thank you Jaune."

Jaune was always weak to her hugs, but he didn't smile.

"Ow! Pyrrha really? I'm still wounded here," he joked, hugging her with his uninjured arm.

Pyrrha jumped back, cupping her face.

"I'm sorry Jaune. Come on, let's get you treated," she said, taking his hand and leading him to medical.

"It's just a scratch, but okay," he laughed, stripping his clothes when he got into sickbay.

Naked beside his underwear, he had the one gash on his shoulder but also many bruises. After getting scanned by the medical machine, the result said that his arm was broken as well, most likely from holding the shield up against the chin gun rounds.

"Just a scratch, eh?" she repeated, looking at the X-ray image. "It could be worse though. Looks like we're out of commission for a bit then."

"I've had worse," he said, rubbing his bad leg out of habit. "Not time to slow down now, got to fence those crystals and buy parts," he sighed, getting up from the table after it set his arm and sutured his wound.

"Your turn to get scanned Pyrrha, and no buts!" he said.

"No, no, I understand," she replied, removing the armor and stepping up to be examined. "Everything should be fine, but it never hurt to double check."

Stepping behind the monitor, Jaune watched as the scan went over her body. It showed newly grown flesh over what was once a gaping hole. Jaune sighed with relief and annoyance.

"Well, you were right, you're perfectly fine," he stepped up to where she laid on the scanning table, resting a hand on her bare stomach as he smiled.

He simply wanted to feel the new skin over Pyrrha's wound, but touching her skin made Jaune's body tingle. Pyrrha sat up at his touch, eyes shifting down to his hand and then back up to Jaune's eyes. She sat there, a questioning look in her eyes before she understood and smirked.

"I may not have an aura now Jaune, but I have ways to make up for it," she said, pulling Jaune down into a light kiss. She pulled away quickly to gauge his reaction.

He scowled, Pyrrha beating him to the punch. Her interlaced his fingers with hers, bending down to kiss her neck. His heart raced as fast as it did when he was fighting.

"Like what?" he asked nervously.

"Mmm, are you sure you don't want me to show you… other things?" she nuzzled her face against his, giving him kisses along his cheek as she sat up to press her body closer to his.

Jaune felt his confidence leave him, losing the initiative. He began to backpedal in his mind as he trailed his other hand from Pyrrha's neck, down to her waist.

"O-other things?" he muttered, gently pressing his frame back into hers.

What she had just said, what she had implied, caught up to her mind, and Pyrrha felt her face heat up from embarrassment.

'Come on Pyrrha, don't chicken out now,' she thought, trying to motivate herself.

Pulling her head back again, she dove for Jaune's lips, taking them in for another heated kiss.

Jaune's hands went lower, to light caress the soft curve of her rear, pushing harder into the kiss. He was even so bold as to bite her lip. Outside he may have seemed lustful but inside he was like the bullheads they just blew up; shaking and a near wreck.

'Just remember the comics, remember the comics Jaune,' he thought to himself.

"Where did… you learn how to kiss so good?" he said, stealing a line from a comic and trying to keep a hold on reality.

"A woman doesn't kiss and tell Jaune," she giggled light.

In reality, she had no idea she was that good a kisser, she just did what felt natural. And right now what felt natural was kissing him again, so she did.

The quickness of her kiss stunned him and dropped his mental defenses. He kissed her back, pushing her into the side of the exam table. Dragging his unbroken arm up her back, he threaded his fingers through her soft hair. He trailed his kisses from her lips down her neck to her collar, nipping the soft skin.

"O-oh… Sorry," he mumbled, realizing what he was doing.

Her breath hitched as Jaune worked his way down.

"It's-It's okay Jaune, you can keep going."

Oh dust she felt like she was going to burn up right now. Was this seriously happening?

"Okay…" Jaune whispered, but thought 'go where? Why didn't I pay more attention to girls growing up?'

So he decided to be blunt.

"I really… don't' know what to do though," he blushed madly, out of breath.

Yet he tried, beginning to suck on the soft skin exposed from Pyrrha's shirt.

"Just," Pyrrha gasped as he hit the sensitive flesh, "just trust your instincts, I'll guide you if you need it."

She was glad she wasn't the only inexperienced one here, but dust she was having a hard time biting back a moan. Jaune was playing her body like a violin, making her suspicious about his proclaimed inexperience.

He mumbled an acknowledgement but was too preoccupied with Pyrrha's skin. It wasn't as warm as a human's and he liked to kiss a spot until it was warm. He leaned his body more into hers, pressing her up against the table. Pyrrha sighed pleasantly as Jaune worked his way down her body, threading a hand in his hair while the other braced herself against the table. She placed a light kiss on his head as he worked his way lower down her chest.

Jaune felt like he was going to faint, his skin was on fire. He wanted to go further, but lifting his head, he just stared at Pyrrha's body hesitantly.

'What did they do next in the comics?!' he thought, losing his mind.

Stalling, he brought his hand over her neck and down to her shoulder, wanting to feel her every curve.

"So beautiful," he accidentally murmured aloud.

No matter how many times Jaune said that, Pyrrha couldn't help but blush and look off to the side.

"You're quite handsome yourself Jaune," she muttered back.

Pausing, he held her by the hips and looked down at his own body that was covered only by his boxers. There were the two freshly healing cuts, a multitude of bruises, innumerable scars, and the horrid mesh of flesh that was one of his legs.

"Hardly," he said. Leaning over, he kissed her neck.

"But you," he kissed her collarbone.

"Are," his lips found the top of her bust.

"Amazing."

Pyrrha took her hand from Jaune's head and began tracing a finger down his body, along all the bruises and scars he had.

"Don't sell yourself short, Jaune. You look every bit the handsome huntsman I dreamed you'd be," she said with a soft smile, looking down at him with his face in her chest.

Were it not for the moment they were having, she might've had a meltdown at the fact that Jaune was almost between her bosoms. Jaune wanted to have a meltdown because his eyes were full of Pyrrha's voluptuous bosoms. It was driving him mad.

"Some huntsman," he scoffed, squatting down so he could lay more kisses upon her firm stomach.

"In a world gone to hell, you've made it long enough to bring us back together. That's quite the huntsman if you asked me."

Dust, he was driving her crazy with the way he was working his way down her body. She felt like she might faint and explode any second now.

"I've killed, put you in danger, almost died," he kissed the tops of her thighs. "Quite the huntsman," he stood up again and bit her neck. "I'm just some lovesick, hopeless, romantic rogue," he picked her up by the behind and sat her onto the table.

Pyrrha didn't mind Jaune picking her up like that. It felt nice not having the table bite into her back.

"Sounds pretty catchy to me."

She took Jaune's head gently in her hands, guiding him to look into her eyes.

"Call yourself what you need to Jaune, but I'm back, I'm here, and I'm yorus as long as you're mine," she pulled him in for a soft kiss.

"Well technically," he chuckled, "I bought you, so you belong to me." He said that jokingly after they kissed.

She playfully swatted at Jaune's chest, "Oh hush you, that's my joke Mister 'stop calling me master.'"

He buried his face in her chest, "Like I said, there are handcuffs down in the brig that I can easily get to."

Stepping into her, he spread her legs around his waist.

"Maybe next time 'Master'~" Pyrrha said, starting to feel really weak as he got that close. "I-I think one of us is a b-bit overdressed," she said, looking down at his boxers.

"Oh," he bit her again, "what are you gonna do about it?"

He took one of her hands, but his other was still imprisoned by the cast. Instead, he rested that hand on her thigh, squeezing it gently.

"Well if my 'Master' is unwilling to undress himself, I guess his loyal slave girl will have to do it instead," she said, dropping her hands to Jaune's waist and shifting the clothes down, inch by inch.

Jaune froze as he was biting her lip. He stared at her eyes and then at her hands. It was so silent he could hear the thumping of his heart in his ears. Everything seemed to slow. They had seen each other naked but it was so different having someone else undress him. Not to mention he was pretty sure this was the first time for both of them. Pyrrha's willingness and his own frankly terrified him.

"Pyrrha…" he hissed, an ounce of apprehension in his voice.

Hearing Jaune hiss, she hoped she hadn't crossed a boundary. They'd already gone so far so fast, she wouldn't be surprised if they stopped here.

"Yes Jaune?"

Jaune was at a loss for words. He didn't want her to stop, but he didn't have the confidence to tell her to keep going. Instead he kissed her again, pressing his body into hers and biting her lip.

Pyrrha took the kiss as him wanting this to continue, so with a final deft movement, she brought his boxers to his knees where it fell to the floor. She returned her hands to the back of his head to pull him into the kiss. Jaune felt his manhood spring out from his boxers. Being naked liks this with Pyrrha wasn't the first time but with the tense atmosphere it made his body shiver. He kissed her back, hands around her thighs.

A hot rush of blood made Pyrrha go lightheaded as Jaune's member pressed against her thighs.

'Dust this was really happening,' she thought as she melted into another kiss.

Jaune's mind and heart were overloading by the sensation, him rubbing against her cool skin. He felt awkward, exposed, but ravenous. Placing a hand on her hip, he positioned himself but made a horrible job of it.

"L-like this?"

Adjusting herself a bit on the table, Pyrrha guiding his member between her legs, and helped him correct his positioning.

"L-like this, Jaune. Th-this is where you need to go," she whispered.

'No second thoughts Pyrrha, no second thoughts. This is what you wanted, and not it's happening,' she mentally chanted to herself, hoping they were doing this right.

He nearly jumped out of his skin, having her hand wrap around him like that.

"P-Pyrrha… I…" he stumbled, stalling.

Was this really happening? Was he going to wake from a dream like he usually did?!  
"Are you…" he was already panting, slipping a fraction of himself into her, "ready?"

Pyrrha had to try hard not to moan as he slid into her, even if it was only a bit.

"Dust Jaune… I-you're asking now while you're almost inside me?" she half chuckled.

Dust she loved him, even if he could be a bit dense. She just shook her head and looked at him with the sweetest smile.

"I want no regrets Jaune."

Her smile melted everything inside of him, making him forget the pain, the past, throwing him back to their younger days when all they had was school.

"Okay," he murmured, enraptured by the grey beauty that he was connected to. Hesitantly, he moved forward, bit by bit as he leaned in to kiss her again, groaning as he felt so much warmth from such a small part of his body.

"O-Oh… Oh Grimm," he muttered, holding onto her for support.

Pyrrha winced as Jaune entered her, getting used to having something like this penetrate her. Despite her discomfort, it felt so good that she couldn't ignore it. She wrapped her legs around Jaune's waist, holding him close once he was all the way in.

"Dust Jaune, I feel… this feels amazing," she said with a moan.

She was holding tightly onto Jaune's shoulders, getting ready for what was to happen next.

Everywhere Pyrrha's skin met Jaune's, he felt the warmth sapped from him. It made him shiver, but he was so hot that it didn't matter. With Pyrrha's legs around him, there was no escape.

"I… Ohhh," he groaned, feeling her every motion. "You feel… Amazing Pyrrha," he mumbled, at a loss for words.

He slowly got the idea and began to rock his hips, dragging himself out and in gently. Even this slow made him feel insane, made him felt like he was going to burst.

"Does it feel… Okay? I don't think… I can last," he said in strained ecstasy, biting her neck to try and quench his moans.

It felt amazing. Pyrrha was so happy, feeling Jaune move inside her. Weirdly enough, he biting her made her feel even more turned on. Unconsciously, she began moving her hips as well, although she was awkwardly out of sync with Jaune's rhythm.

"Dust Jaune, I love it, I love this! Please keep going," she begged.

Jaune heard her and felt like a wild Grimm as he moved his hips faster. He bent his head as low as it could go, biting the top of her bosom hungrily. Sadly, he didn't last long. Being alone for years he had plenty of… 'alone time' but this was his first time with someone else. His body grew rigid a few more pumps later, as he howled like a Beowulf, his bottom half exploding as he felt the sticky wetness seep between them.

"Oh… Grimm… Dust… I… I'm sorry… I couldn't," he sighed, leaning heavily into her body.

Pyrrha was feeling on top of the world as Jaune thrusted into her. Never had she imagined she could feel this good, and yet she knew it would get even better with her building orgasm. Just as it was starting to grow, she felt Jaune cum inside her, and despite how good it felt at first, Pyrrha couldn't help but feel disappointed as he came to a stop.

"It's… it's okay Jaune. Can you continue?" she breathed. She rolled her hips, mewing slight as she did so, not wanting to be left behind.

Feeling her restless movements against his hyper sensitive skin made Jaune moan.

"I think… I think so…" he breathed, suddenly feeling exhausted. "I'm sorry. I can… I can keep going."

He felt guilty that he came so fast. He climbed onto the table with Pyrrha, rolling her on top of him.

"Like… this?"

Pyrrha suddenly found herself straddling Jaune. She rested her hand on his chest to hold herself up. She felt Jaune touched her insides differently than before, though just as heavenly, if not more so.

"Yes Jaune, like that," she hummed pleasantly as she rocked her hips forward and back a bit.

Jaune felt her weight and the power in her hips. He felt deeper than he was before, the cum dripping out onto both their legs. Watching Pyrrha was mesmerizing, the way her chest swayed with every movement. All the lines were broken now as he reached up with his good hand and took one of her breasts, kneading it gently.

Pyrrha was moaning wantonly as she started to bounce on Jaune, his cum and her juices making it a lot easier and pleasurable to be penetrated.

"Oh dust, oh dust, oh dust Jaune!" she moaned, lost in pleasure.

Jaune couldn't believe how good it felt. He tried to add his own hips to help Pyrrha. His pleasure was amplified by the post-coming sensitivity so much so that it was almost painful. His hand clenched Pyrrha's breast hard as he watched her face.

"Keep going!" he urged her.

Pyrrha could feel that pressure building in her core, similar to what she had felt before. The pressure on her breast in his grasp hurt a bit, but in a weird way it was turning her on.

"Jaune, I can feel it, I'm gonna cum!" she shouted.

He let go of her chest and placed both his hands on her hips. He pulled her down as he thrusted up with his hips, trying to help her reach her plateau. The songs of joy form her mouth made him mad with desire as he grunted with every pump. Her insides clamped tight around him and he couldn't believe what he felt.

"Oh Grimm me too!"

The hands on her hips pushed her over the edge, pulling her down deeper onto his cock again and again until she felt a warm explosion of ecstasy seep through her entire body. She felt her arms go weak as she fell forward onto Jaune's chest, trembling with pleasure.

Jaune came shortly after, breathing hard as Pyrrha collapsed onto him. Wearily, he wrapped a hand around her waist, stroking her sweating head. He felt dead with pleasure.

"Woah… that was intense."

Pyrrha could only nod her head against his chest, still coming down from her orgasmic high. She hummed in satisfaction as Jaune played with her hair.

Jaune's eyes danced on the edge of sleep, his hand becoming more limp as he stroked Pyrrha's body. He felt their session and all the day's work start to weigh him down. Yet he began to shiver, Pyrrha's body sucking the warmth from him.

"Why…" he began, squirming slightly under her massive chest, reorienting themselves so they laid side by side, "why is your body always so cold?"

Pyrrha frowned as she was pushed away from the warm body. Did they have to go back to reality so quickly? She let off a sad sigh as fate refused to hear her please.

"I'm still not human, Jaune," she said with a sorrowful smile.


End file.
